Mind the gap.
Straphangers tentatively cheered Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plan to put New York’s Finest on every overnight subway train Wednesday — but it remained unclear how the NYPD would manage to staff the new effort, or when it would start.
Cops panned the late-night subway surge — announced during Hochul’s “State of the State” speech Tuesday — as “totally unrealistic” in light of dwindling NYPD numbers and a clampdown on overtime.
“This is a classic case of robbing Peter to pay Paul,” a Brooklyn cop told The Post. “If they put more cops in the subway, they will be taking them from patrolling the streets — leaving the streets less safe.”
Subway riders who spoke to The Post greeted the plan with more hope, albeit mixed with some skepticism.
Martin Canelo, 41, a baker who takes an overnight N to get to work from Brooklyn, said he regularly sees homeless people smoke crack or shoot up heroin during his early morning commute. For his safety, he only rides in cars with conductors.
“You don’t know if you are going to get robbed, shot. I don’t want to see another person set on fire on the train,” he said. “If I feel sleepy, I get up and stand up.
“Something has to be done, they have to try something… But I want to see it in place first. Let me see how it plays out,” he said.
How exactly the surge will work remained unclear a day after Hochul’s platitude-heavy speech, which left out many key details — including when the initiative would begin or how much it would cost.
“I want to see uniformed police on the platforms, but more importantly, we will put an officer on every single train, overnight – 9 p.m. to 5 a.m – over the next six months and the state will support these efforts financially,” Hochul said Tuesday.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, in a subsequent statement, said Hochul’s proposal “will allow us to put more officers on the trains, including two officers on every overnight train.”
Neither Hochul’s office nor the NYPD responded when asked by The Post Wednesday about the plan’s start date.
The governor did fill in some details about cost during an unrelated press conference in Troy, New York, saying that the state will put $77 million toward the surge, which will be in addition to an existing deployment of 1,000 National Guard, as well as NYPD and MTA police already conducting patrols during the day.
Many straphangers were hopeful it’ll make the subways safer.
N. Ford, 32, who works security, said the surge should’ve happened long ago.
“Right now, I’m petrified,” she said, holding onto a metal rail. “Knowing they are on the train would make me feel a bit at ease.”
“I think when things are out of control, given the transit system, you need to make a statement with force,” said Dan Hoffman, 48, who works in media.
“I don’t know if it will work, but I think it will help.”
Joan, a 37-year-old mother of three who takes the F train from Brooklyn for her hospital job, welcomed more cops on the subway for her overnight shifts.
“We’re saved!” she exclaimed. “I can stop paying for Uber, thanks.”
Hochul said she wants cops on night trains between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. because that’s when she believes most violent crimes occur.
She also wants the patrols to clear out homeless people before the morning commute.
“There’s a lot of anxiety late at night on these trains and I want to tamper that down, but also send a message that if you’re trying to do something harmful to others you will be caught,” she said.
Hochul contended her team worked closely with NYPD officials on the plan, though many rank-and-file cops wondered where the manpower will be found within the department’s stretched-thin ranks.
The NYPD currently has roughly 33,500 uniformed cops, down from around 36,000 five years ago.
Of those, 2,000 are assigned to transit.
The number of cops needed for the surge remained unclear Wednesday, and Hochul did not elaborate on where cops will be found.
The MTA couldn’t immediately say Wednesday how many trains it runs on its 36 subway lines during those overnight hours.
“New Yorkers have been demanding more police presence, both in the subways and in our neighborhoods,” said Patrick Hendry, president of the Police Benevolent Association union. “But the NYPD simply does not have the staffing to sustain that presence for the long haul everywhere it’s needed.”
Other cops were more blunt, venting frustrations about low manpower coupled with tightening rules on overtime.
“I don’t know how the governor’s plan will work without paying cops overtime,” one law-enforcement source said. “The department is currently struggling to staff daily operational functions. Is staffing subways on the overnight, when ridership is lowest, the best use of resources?”
New rules took effect Jan. 1 that halved the number of subway overtime hours cops can work in half, sources have told The Post.
The overtime changes came amid a sex-for-overtime scandal that toppled former Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey, whose underling Lt. Quathisha Epps made more than $200,000 in OT.
Many lower-ranking cops raged that the overtime cuts targeted the wrong people, given the alleged abusers are near NYPD’s top.
“The department is on life support… any progress made can be easily undone with such policies as more cops working overtime, particularly if it’s restricted to only being approved on their [regular day off] or working the overnight,” another law-enforcement source said. “This may be the final straw to push them out the door.”
