News: Stopping the next subway shooter

Wednesday, April 13, 2022

Stopping the next subway shooter

Apr 13, 2022

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Members of the NYPD investigate an incident on an uptown 4 subway after an emergency brake was pulled near Union Square in New York City.

Members of the NYPD investigate an incident on an uptown 4 subway after an emergency brake was pulled near Union Square in New York City. | Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images

TECH SUPPORT — Even before today's arrest of a suspect in Tuesday's Brooklyn subway shooting, NYC Mayor Eric Adams was talking about how new technologies could improve security in the nation's busiest transit system.

To go over the promise and the challenges of installing new security measures, Nightly spoke with New York city hall reporter Joe Anuta over Slack. This conversation has been edited.

Everyone knows the New York City subway system is big. Not to start off like a bad joke book, but, well, how big is it?

It's massive. There are about 470 stops throughout the five boroughs. If you were to ride to every one, as people attempt to do from time to time, it would take more than 20 hours.

And while it's located entirely within New York City, it is actually controlled by the state government.

Doesn't New York City, or New York State, already use technology to bolster security in the subway?

Cutting-edge security — or cutting-edge anything for that matter — is not typically associated with the city's antiquated subway system. But the head of the transit system said today there are 10,000 cameras throughout the network of stations, which he noted was a substantial increase from years before.

Otherwise, safety efforts have been pretty analog: Commuters have been subject to random bag searches by the NYPD since 2005, and more recently, Mayor Adams has talked extensively about beefing up the police presence underground, even before Tuesday's attack.

Adams said he would look to deploy high-tech gun detection technology, but not traditional metal detectors. How would this new system work?

We don't know exactly what the mayor has in mind yet. But he talked broadly this morning about a system that could scan commuters for guns, in many cases without them knowing.

This is part of a broader push from his administration to explore more technological policing tools, such as facial recognition, that has alarmed several civil rights groups. In this case, the concern from critics is that these detection systems tend to return a lot of false positives, which could give police officers a pretext to stop and search a broad group of commuters.

So critics say the new systems cited by Adams could end up infringing on the rights of New Yorkers without providing a meaningful increase in safety. Does City Hall have data that supports the effectiveness of these new systems?

I think it's too early to say anything about the efficacy of the systems, since we don't know exactly what the mayor has in mind. But this technology has already won over NYPD higher-ups, according to what Adams said this morning, and it's going to be rolled out in a pilot program soon — so we might not have to wait long.

Critics will have very limited means to push back, because the mayor enjoys strong powers to run the city as he sees fit. I would imagine, if opponents truly believe these systems infringe upon the rights of New Yorkers, they will have to take their case to the courts.

Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight's author at tweyant@politico.com, or on Twitter at @tweyant.

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Open and fair competition in the digital marketplace drives our members' success, but the proposals in the Open App Markets Act will hinder our small business members' opportunity for continued prosperity. https://actonline.org/2022/04/04/give-small-developers-a-chance-not-higher-barriers-to-entry/

What'd I Miss?

— Suspected subway shooter purchased gun legally, despite long criminal record: Frank James, who was arrested for opening fire in a subway car Tuesday morning, used a legal handgun in the attack that injured 23 people, authorities said today. Despite his lengthy criminal record, James was able to buy the firearm because he'd never been convicted of a felony, they said. Meanwhile, Adams attempted to restore a sense of calm to the city that was sent into a tailspin for over 24 hours after the shooting while hundreds of detectives searched for the suspect.

— White House says Biden's genocide remarks 'what he feels is clear as day': "The president was speaking to what we all see, to what he feels is clear as day, in terms of the atrocities on the ground," press secretary Jen Psaki said, a day after Biden labeled the Russian invasion of Ukraine a genocide . Psaki noted there is still a legal process to play out in terms of an official declaration.

— DNC sets off free-for-all to remake presidential calendar: The Democratic National Committee is officially reopening its presidential nominating process, upending the current calendar led by Iowa and New Hampshire and requiring them — and any other interested states — to apply for early-state status in 2024 . Members of the DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee voted today to set the application process for how states will be considered as candidates to lead off the presidential primaries, potentially expanding the roster from four to five states. The influential perch guarantees candidates, attention and money flow into those states during national campaigns — not to mention giving voters there an outsize say in picking presidents.

— Marine Le Pen plays down her Russia ties ahead of election runoff: French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen said today that accusations she was close to Russia were "unfair," and reiterated that she had changed her stance on the Kremlin since the war in Ukraine . "The trial I am subjected to is particularly unfair," the National Rally politician told a press conference in Paris, at which she set out her proposals on foreign policy ahead of an April 24 runoff vote against incumbent Emmanuel Macron in the French presidential election.

— Mark Meadows removed from N.C. voting rolls: Former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has been removed from the voter rolls in North Carolina, as state officials probe potential voter fraud allegations against the former congressman. "Macon County administratively removed the voter registration of Mark Meadows under" state law, Patrick Gannon — a spokesperson for the state board of elections — said in a statement, "after documentation indicated he lived in Virginia and last voted in the 2021 election there."

— Hochul considering 'a lot of people' to replace LG: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said today she is planning to choose a replacement for former Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin, but said there is still a lot to figure out as she considers who that might be and whether there's any path to finding a different running mate to put on the ballot this year. Hochul gave every indication that she would choose a replacement for Benjamin, which she has the power to do unilaterally. But she stressed that the search for a new lieutenant is still "very early in the process."

— Jan. 6 defendant wants jurors to blame Trump, not him, for decision to breach Capitol: A man charged with breaching the Capitol on Jan. 6 all but admits he broke multiple laws in service of overturning the 2020 election — but he wants jurors to acquit him because he says he believed he was acting at the behest of then-President Donald Trump. Dustin Thompson — who is facing charges for attempting to obstruct Congress' Electoral Vote-counting session as well as for stealing a coat tree from a Capitol office — argues that Trump's apocalyptic rhetoric on Jan. 6, capping a months-long campaign to convince supporters the election was stolen, drove him to storm into the Capitol.

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AROUND THE WORLD

HOW 30 COULD QUICKLY GO TO 32 — Finland and Sweden are hastening toward a decision on whether to join NATO, as Russia's war in Ukraine deepens security fears across the region Lili Bayer and Charlie Duxbury write.

Opinion polls show surging public support in both countries for abandoning their long-held neutrality and joining the military alliance. Momentum among politicians is growing for membership applications to be submitted as early as June, when NATO leaders hold a summit in Madrid.

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said today that her country will make a call on NATO membership within "weeks rather than months."

Speaking at a joint press conference with Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, Marin made the announcement as the Finnish government submitted a report to parliament on changes in the security environment, formally kicking off a debate on NATO membership. "The security situation in Europe and in Finland is more serious and more difficult to predict than at any time since the Cold War," the government said in its report.

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Nightly Number

The number of bills Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed — including some that passed with broad bipartisan support — as he took action on more than 800 bills the divided legislature sent him during its regular session. None of the vetoed bills were sponsored by Republicans, a point Democrats quickly seized on, criticizing the first-term governor as excessively partisan. Youngkin's veto total was higher than any other governor in his first year in office since Republican Jim Gilmore, who had 37 in 1998, according to an accounting by the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project. Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam, who preceded Youngkin, was close with 20.

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Parting Words

NO LUNCHING AT THE GORBACHEV PIZZA HUT — Russia's Foreign Ministry released a statement today announcing sanctions against 398 members of the U.S. House, Anthony Adragna and Nancy Vu write for Congress Minutes.

It's the latest response during the ongoing war in Ukraine, after the U.S. sanctioned 328 members of the Russian Duma in late March. Democrats and Republicans. Even conservative firebrands, like Reps. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who have been among the only members critical of Ukraine, made the cut for this round of sanctions.

Russia noted some lawmakers, specifically pointing to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have previously been denied entry to the country.

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When the largest sellers on the app stores, with multi-billion-dollar valuations, come to Congress with proposals to reshape the mobile marketplace to suit their needs, policymakers should be rather skeptical. We urge Congress not to sacrifice consumers' most important privacy and security protections–and with them, the competitive prospects of small app companies–in order to further advantage the app stores' biggest winners. https://actonline.org/2022/04/04/give-small-developers-a-chance-not-higher-barriers-to-entry/

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