Even if your eyelids are feeling way too heavy after a long day, authorities are warning New Yorkers to stay awake while on the subway.
Police Commissioner Bill Bratton announced on Wednesday that the NYPD will be adding more police officers to subway patrols in hopes of stopping crimes from happening, according to NBC New York. These officers will wake up any straphangers who are taking a nap while on the subway.
“A lot of people are tired, they work very hard but our officers are going to be instructed to start waking people up,” Bratton said during a press conference, reported the New York Post.
The police commissioner added that riders who have fallen asleep become easy targets from criminals on the trains, according to the Post.
So far in 2016, there have been 25 more felonies on the subway system than the same month in 2015, the Post reported. Subway crimes are up to 6.65 crimes per day – up from 4.8 during the same time in 2015.
“Seriously, by sleeping you make yourself, as reflected in our crime state, a very easy victim to lose your phone, to lose your wallet, to lose some of your clothing items,” he said.
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Bratton made the announcement alongside Mayor Bills de Blasio on Wednesday after also stating that the first month of 2016 was the safest since the NYPD has been keeping records, according to NBC.
The NYPD announced that this January saw 44 fewer crimes than in 2015 – with a decrease of 0.6 percent. The low crime numbers were in the categories of murder, robbery, burglar, grand larceny auto, and shootings.
The city saw a 45 percent decrease in Murders, 34 percent decrease in shootings, 4.4 percent decrease in rape, 8.5 percent decrease in robbery and 18.4 percent decrease in felonious assault.
In January burglary was down by 11.3 percent, grand larceny by 0.5 percent and grand larceny auto by 5.9 percent, according to the NYPD.
By: Angy Altamirano, Metro New York
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