NEW YORK – Days after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called on New York City’s leadership to clean up the city’s subway system, Mayor Eric Adams extended an invitation asking Duffy to experience firsthand the issues plaguing the crime-ridden transit hub.
On Friday, Adams and Duffy went underground, boarding the BQE line in Brooklyn and riding the subway into Manhattan alongside NYPD Chief of Transit Joseph Gulotta as the federal government vows to aid the city with its crime prevention.
“The mayor has been working on a bipartisan effort to get more law enforcement officers into the system to make people feel safe,” Duffy told reporters inside lower Manhattan’s Broadway-Lafayette station.
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The high-profile visit comes two weeks after Duffy penned a letter to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), saying the Trump administration is here to “restore order” and requesting the department hand over data on rider assaults, police patrols and fare evasion.
“I appreciate your prompt attention to this matter to avoid further consequences, up to and including redirecting or withholding funding,” Duffy wrote.
But standing in a busy subway station, Duffy vowed to continue providing the city with federal support and confirmed the administration has not withheld funding.
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“You’ll find the Trump administration and the Department of Transportation are great partners with New York,” Duffy said. “Let’s make it beautiful for the riders of the subway system.”
During his trip uptown, Duffy witnessed firsthand the woes plaguing the city’s subway system.
“We just saw someone who was laying at the top of the stairs,” Duffy told reporters. “I don’t know if [the man] urinated on himself or defecated, but the mayor needs the tools with law enforcement to take care of people – this is not humane.”
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While New York City’s subway system has seen a statistical drop in crime throughout the first few months of 2025, stories of random violence continue to rattle commuters.
In January, surveillance footage captured the horrifying moment a man was shoved in front of an oncoming train while standing on the platform in Manhattan’s 18th Street station. While the victim survived, authorities later charged Kamel Hawkins, 23, with attempted murder.
One month earlier, a woman was killed after an illegal immigrant allegedly set her on fire while riding the subway in Brooklyn.
Some commuters have been left to defend themselves in the subways.
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In December, Daniel Penny was acquitted of criminally negligent homicide in the 2023 subway chokehold death of Jordan Neely, a homeless man with schizophrenia who barged onto the train shouting death threats while high on a type of synthetic marijuana known as K2.
In January, a 69-year-old man fought off migrants who tried to rob him on the subway, and in another attack a 71-year-old woman fended off four would-be teen muggers.
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Adams praised the federal government for its help in cracking down on subway crime, but condemned Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration’s apparent hesitation to roll out new initiatives aimed at the MTA.
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“I was sharing with the Secretary [that] the cause we’re having in Albany [is] involuntary movement,” said Adams, a Democrat who announced his intention this week to seek re-election as an independent. “Homeless individuals who need care, or the support we need from our state lawmakers to see [police] carry out on the ground.”
The Hochul administration and the MTA did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Duffy and Adams signaled their administrations would continue to work together to combat crime within the city, essentially removing the governor as the middleman between the city and federal government.
“I think Albany has to think deeply about how far we have to go in order to stop [crime],” Duffy said. “That’s more resources, that’s more tools that Albany has to give [the NYPD] to arrest people. [The federal government] gives a lot of money, and for us, we’re partners in the process.”
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