Mayor Adams wants to test out AI-powered metal detectors in the subway system.
Photo by Dean Moses
Give the NYPD and the MTA credit where it’s due: New York City’s subways have been safer the past six months than they have been for quite some time.
Overall transit crime is down 7.8% year-to-date through July 17, according to NYPD statistics — a remarkable feat given that January saw a dramatic spike in crime underground thanks to a rash of subway shootings and a proliferation of thieves.
But the joint effort to tackle the early crime spike — surging more NYPD officers (and even National Guard members) into the subways, and redoubling their focus on squashing fare evasion — has helped make the subways safer than last year, or two years ago. This effort to tackle crime is also helping in the steady yet far-too-slow rebound in ridership amid the post-pandemic era.
While touting the success in fighting transit crime Wednesday at the Fulton Center hub in Lower Manhattan, Mayor Eric Adams made another announcement designed to restore public confidence in the subways further: Metal detectors equipped with AI-technology will soon be rolled out — possibly “in the next few days,” as the mayor said.
In announcing the metal detectors’ impending arrival in March, Mayor Adams called it a “Sputnik moment” in the city’s history. That might have been an exaggeration, but without question, the presence of the metal detectors (wherever they are posted) will surely help make a huge difference in bolstering reductions in transit crime.
The metal detectors are not as invasive as devices people are accustomed to when walking through airports or administrative buildings. The sensors are open and set up in such a way, with AI technology, that it can pick up a possible weapon on a person as they pass by — alerting police and allowing officers to move in and investigate further.
After rigorous testing, the mayor said, the metal detectors worked so well that it left his administration “extremely impressed with the outcome,” and eager to move forward with their installation.
How effective the metal detectors will be at subway stations across the city is yet to be seen. Time will tell whether they will be as effective in the real world as in the lab, much like any other technological advance.
If the devices work, not only can they be essential toward helping to keep armed criminals and weapons out of the subway system, but it will also help dissuade questions of profiling when it comes to police officers stopping suspected fare evaders — a common concern among New Yorkers amid the ongoing fare evasion crackdown.
Metal detectors in the subways are an idea whose time has come in New York. Here’s hoping that this new technology will only build on increases in subway safety, and further boost the public’s confidence in riding underground.
