New York City Democrat Mayor Eric Adams says he is bringing back bag checks for subway riders after a 13 percent crime spike – over a decade after the city’s similar ‘stop-and-frisk’ policy was deemed unconstitutional.
Recent criminal activity on the trains making headlines include a cellist who was bludgeoned over the head by a stranger wielding a water bottle as he performed, as well as a shooting that killed one and injured five others.
‘We know people feel unsafe,’ Adams, himself a former transit police officer, admitted during a press briefing.
The mayor said he will be bringing back methods that have been previously used in times of great suspicion.
‘We are reinstituting bag checks. There are several things we are reinstituting in the system,’ Adams added, with the NYPD reportedly searching bags for weapons such as knives, box cutters, clubs and guns.
There will be 94 bag screening teams sent to 136 stations each week, though the exact locations will be determined. The city is also reviewing technology to detect metal objects entering the transit system.
Screening teams will be able to check bags of any passenger for weapons under the policy that has long been dormant.
Those subway back-check protocols were originally brought to the MTA after the London bombings in 2005.
However, it may bring back memories of the city’s ‘stop-and-frisk’ policy, which was ended in 2014 after being deemed ‘unconstitutional.’
Hellbound and Down 