George Floyd protests reignite concerns over funding for 500 new MTA cops

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Transit advocates on Monday called out Gov. Cuomo’s decision to hire 500 additional cops at the MTA, saying it doesn’t square up with his plan to push through statewide police reforms next week.

In a joint letter to Cuomo, organizations including Riders Alliance, Tri-State Transportation Campaign and the Straphangers Campaign, said the MTA police-hiring money would be better spent on transit services.

“Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic that hit New York three months ago, eight million riders took New York City subways and buses daily with vanishingly little crime,” the letter said. “Ridership was increasing and demands for more off-peak service and other steps to reduce crowding were growing.”

The new cops were approved in December, and will cost the Metropolitan Transportation Authority $249 million over the next four years. Transit officials said they will focus on homeless outreach and enforcing fare evasion in the subway.

The transit advocates said the money is desperately needed for other uses now that the coronavirus crisis has cratered the agency’s finances.

The letter comes two weeks after George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin, which sparked protests across the country over police brutality — and demands to defund police.

“What we know about the devastating impact of policing in many communities in our city suggests we need a decisive shifts from those policies,” said Riders Alliance spokesman Danny Pearlstein. “We know from statistics that over-policing in the subway hits communities of color by far the hardest.”

The governor’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Cuomo on Friday announced a new agenda for police reform he called “Say Their Name,” which includes the repeal of the 50-A state regulation that allows police officers’ disciplinary records to be shielded from the public, and a statewide ban on the use of chokeholds by cops.