NYC subway crime remains a major issue during coronavirus pandemic — even as ridership plummets

Cops were still looking for answers in the deadly subterranean fire, scouring the train stations along the Upper West Side for video that shows the likely suspect setting fires at two other subway stations along the route.

Criminals still run wild in New York City’s subway — even as the coronavirus pandemic has caused straphangers to avoid the system at a historic rate.

Data released by the NYPD over the weekend shows there were 173 major felonies reported in the subway over the course of March, a slight dip from the 179 the department reported during the same month in 2019.

That’s a surprisingly small drop given the degree at which transit ridership plummeted after elected officials moved to close all non-essential businesses across the state.

By the end of March, weekday subway ridership was down to about 530,000 rides per day, or just under 10% of pre-pandemic levels.

Some types of transit crime like robbery have actually ticked up during the pandemic. Cops recorded 51 robberies last month, up from 33 during March 2019.

The troubling crime stats include a tragic act of arson on an uptown No. 2 subway train on March 27 that killed Garrett Goble, a train operator who helped usher straphangers to safety during the blaze.

Data shows the trend continued into April — even as weekday subway ridership fell even further to around 420,000 daily trips.

In the four-week period after March 15, when Mayor de Blasio announced the city’s schools, bars and restaurants would close indefinitely to contain the spread of coronavirus, subway robberies were up 29% from the same period in 2019.

Subway burglaries were also up during the same period, from just one recorded in 2019 to five this year.

The number of cops who have been out sick during the pandemic may have played a role in the relatively high rate of subway crime.

As of Sunday, 4,371 NYPD employees had tested positive for COVID-19, and 5,024 uniformed members — or 14% of the department’s uniformed workforce — were on sick report. The number of cops out sick is down from a peak of nearly 20% of the workforce, said NYPD spokeswoman Denise Moroney.

The cop shortage correlated with far fewer arrests for subway crime between March 16 and April 12. The NYPD Transit bureau reported 128 arrests during the period, down 86% from 931 subway arrests during the same four-week stretch in 2019.

“The NYPD is committed to protecting our communities and will continue to address crime conditions as they arise during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Moroney said.

Police officials have told Metropolitan Transportation Authority leaders that ridership may have played a major role in the crime trend, as there are fewer members of the public around to deter would-be criminals.

MTA leaders have responded by moving more members of its own police force into the subway — and have even contracted 70 private security guards to help deter crime.

“Keeping the MTA workforce and our riders safe is and always will be the top priority,” said interim NYC Transit President Sarah Feinberg.