Undercover police officers watch the crowded NYC train, focusing from passenger to passenger, as they search for men getting too close to women.
The team of seven officers, all from the Transit Bureau, were working the Lexington Avenue line. The officers witness some men just go up and grab a female, while others try to disguise it as a simple brush. At Union Square, Detective Marquis Cross saw a man he remembered from a previous arrest, standing suspiciously close to a female passenger. When the female passenger exited the car, Detective Cross questioned her to ask if she felt anything weird, with her only to reply that she felt “the man did seem too close.”
These kind of sex crimes are not new. Some have felt an odd feeling on their genitals. Others have seen a guy masturbating to them and their bodies. Unfortunately, most do not report such incidents. According to Fox News NY, there has been a 17.8% rise in sex crimes and a 9.2% rise in felony crime. There are 1.4 crimes per day on the subways. According to New York Times, reported sex crimes on the subways rose 19 percent last year, to 738 from 620 in 2014.
Joseph Fox, the chief of the Police Department’s Transit Bureau, said he believed the increase in reported sex crimes was due to the fact that more women are coming forward and reporting these incidents. He expects the number of reports will keep rising as the police continue to talk about the problem.
Chief Fox said:
“Many men don’t know this issue exists; far too many women do,”
NYC Police have made about 400 arrests last year for sex crimes on the subway. Lt. Angela Morris often works with the assaulted victims, since they are more comfortable talking to a female about the incident.
According to Lieutenant Morris:
“She’s more free to tell me everything that she felt happen to her,”
Lt. Morris also adds that she has taken victims to get a new change of clothes after the incidents; some of which have been so bad that the victims clothes were damaged.
New York City has responded positively to the increase in officers on NYC trains. An anti-harassment group named Hollaback‘s deputy director, Debjani Roy, said officers must not dismiss victims’ concerns.
Featured Image by faungg’s photos via Flickr under a Creative Commons License.
