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New York Subway Scanners To Stop Killings?

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

NEW YORK (Worthy News) – Passengers trying to carry concealed firearms into New York subway stations had reasons to be cautious Friday after Mayor Eric Adams announced the introduction of “electromagnetic” weapon detection systems.

Reporters witnessed a police officer with a pistol in a holster passing a barrier in a subway station of America’s most populous city of more than 8 million people.

Soon, a beep sounded, but the system remained silent when his colleagues walked through with smartphones and other devices.

Adams said placing the detection technology was part of efforts to make “New Yorkers feel safer in the transit system” after more than a dozen deadly attacks over the last two years.

There were ten homicides in the underground system of the largest U.S. metropolis in 2022, according to official data.

Last year, there were only five, but three people were already killed in the subway network this year, and several have been injured, police said.

However, critics raised doubts about the scanners as they came from Evolv, a publicly traded company. The firm has been accused of “doctoring the results” of software testing to make its scanners appear more effective than they are.

LEGAL AID

Jerome Greco, supervising attorney of the digital forensics unit at the Legal Aid Society, said gun detection systems can trigger false alarms and cause panic.

“This Administration’s headstrong reliance on technology as a panacea to further public safety is misguided, costly, and creates significant invasions of privacy,” Greco said in published remarks.

Adams countered that the city would analyze the scanners’ accuracy, which will be installed at selected stations.

“People may have had bad experiences with this technology,” Adams, a former transit police officer, said. “What we witnessed, it’s living up to our expectations. And we’re going to do an analysis and determine: ‘Hey, is it living up to our expectations?’” the mayor added.

However, those opposing the system point out that violent crime is “rare” in the city’s subway system, which serves about 3 million daily riders.

Yet there were two recent high-profile shooting incidents. Earlier in March, a man was shot with his gun and critically wounded during a confrontation with another passenger.

Last month, one person was killed and several others wounded when shots rang out amid a fight between two groups on a rush-hour subway car.

SEIZING GUNS

Before the latest surge, the New York Police Department (NYPD) had seized 17 guns from people stopped in the system this year, Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said.

With crime spreading, New York City officials announced a plan to send 800 more police officers into the subway system to crack down on these and other crimes, such as fare evasion.

The announcements also came days after a fatal shove in an East Harlem subway station in New York on Monday that once again brought the issue of subway safety to the forefront.

The operator of an oncoming train was unable to stop, and the person was killed, police said.

The suspected shover, Carlton McPherson, 24, was arrested on a murder charge, the latest in a series of incidents that New York authorities are desperately seeking to stop.

It was unclear whether the scanners and other measures would do much to reduce these crimes at turbulent times in the “Big Apple’s” underground.