Random Bag Checks Return to NYC Subway
People waiting for a train in a New York City subway station. Credit: Michelle Trotter via Unsplash
Random bag checks in New York City subways are back, with New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul pushing for better safety within New York’s transit systems.
This call to action comes after Adams added 1,000 police officers throughout the subway system in response to the spike in crime in January, according to The Guardian. Additionally, these announcements unraveled after the shooting that took place in the subway in February, where five people were wounded and one was killed.
However, this is not the first for the city’s residents have endured these bag checks, as noted by The Guardian. They occurred on and off in the wake of the 2004 Madrid train bombing and the 2005 London bombings, among other related worldly events throughout the years.
“These brazen heinous attacks on our subway system will not be tolerated,” Hochul said in a press conference in response to the violence on the subways.
As part of this violence occurring in the subways, people have been shoved onto the tracks into oncoming trains and conductors have been assaulted – on top of the fatal shooting that occurred in the Hoyt-Schermerhorn subway station in Brooklyn on March 14.
As reported by Lohud News, the New York Police Department found that crime within the New York transit system alone is up 13% this year, compared to around the same time last year.
The article explains that members of the New York State National Guard will be in charge of checking bags, administered by Hochul. She says that National Guard members and other authorized officers have the right to stop subway commuters to search their bags. If a rider refuses, they may be refused entry into the subway system.
The New York Civil Liberties Union challenged these bag checks when they first began in 2005, citing violations of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments. The NYCLU lost the challenge, with the judge ruling these checks constitutional.
Many New Yorkers and other subway commuters have expressed their fears regarding the current state of the subway. However, the implementation of this policy has raised questions for some on whether or not the checking of bags is justified or an invasion of privacy.
“I don’t think it was shocking that they did this because I feel like throughout New York and the subways, we’ve always known the crime is kind of crazy there,” said Jilian Antretter ‘26 upon hearing about the bag check policy in the subways. Antretter, a Queens native, agrees with the justification of these bag checks.
“They’re not doing it in a way in which they aim to investigate people or that they think people are hiding something,” said Antretter. “It’s more in a way that these are just the precautions that are meant to protect us.”
Emma Bogdan ‘27 is a New York City native who feels that the measures taken are invasive. “I think they’re an invasion of privacy. I don’t want people I don’t know checking through my bag randomly on the subway,” says Bogdan.
While Bogdan believes bag checks are an invasion of commuters’ privacy, she also expressed her concerns for the efficiency of the checks in subway stations during hectic travel times.
“I honestly didn’t like the idea of them doing the checks because I think it would be time-consuming during the commute, and that the random checks wouldn’t really be doing anything,” Bodgan expressed. “I also think there is the possibility of people being delayed in their commute because of this.”
Next on the list of implementations for the subways is gun detectors, which will come on the scene sometime in late June, according to the National Review. In the article, the Legal Aid Society criticized the measure stating, “Gun detection systems are flawed and frequently trigger false alarms, which induces panic and creates situations that could result in the loss of life.”
The efforts by Hochul and Adams to improve the New York City subways are ongoing and constant as New York City’s image becomes tarnished by crime.
“I want to change the psychology around crime in New York City because we are the safest big city in America,” said Hochul in an interview with MSNBC. “I want people on the subways. It is safe. But I'm going to make sure people feel safe.”