NYPD Targets Drone Program to Help Combat Subway Surfing

By means of Josephine Stratman and Cayla Bamberger

Source Daily news from New York

Mayor Adams on Thursday applauded a drone initiative aimed at cracking down surfing in the subwayin response to the deaths of six people this yearincluding two teenagers who died surfing in the subway just this past week.

Adams praised the NYPDs drone program as a way the city is trying to prevent this from happening more deaths.

“We will see the lives that have been lost, but rarely do you get the medal for the lives that have been saved,” the mayor said at a news conference outside a Queens school near the No. 7 above-ground train. “And these offices, this team and this technology saves lives.”

The aerial drone program started last year as a pilot initiative and was made permanent in June, NYPD officials said.

The NYPD has two drones that fly over the J, M, Z and 7 subway lines during the after-school hours of 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM to alert officers on the scene if there is an subway surfer is spotted. The officers then arrest the daredevils at a subway station and take them into custody.

Since the program started a year ago, 114 people have been brought in after being flagged as subway surfing by the drones. About 40 of those people had been arrested more than once for subway surfing, officials said.

“They have labeled this as fear. We label them as lives saved,” said Kaz Daughtry, NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Operations.

Norma Nazario, whose 15-year-old son, Zackery Nazario, died while surfing on the subway last year, called on platforms like TikTok — where teens post viral videos shot on trains — to take action.

“The social media companies must take action, remove these videos and stop imposing harmful challenges on our children,” Nazario said.

A 13-year-old girl, Krystel Romero, became the sixth person to die this year while surfing the subway after she and another teen fell from the 7 train in Manhattan in Corona, Queens on Sunday and were run over by the train. Her boyfriend was seriously injured. Krystel’s death came less than a week later Adolfo Sorzano died similarly after falling from an M train in Ridgewood, Queens.

In September one 11 year old boy, Cayden Thompsonwas killed while surfing in Park Slope, Brooklyn – the youngest person to die from the dangerous stunt in recent history.

The mayor and the MTA have been demanding for months that platforms like Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok remove the videos, and some companies have complied.

The city has also launched a public awareness campaign, with the warning slogan ‘Subway surfing kills – drive in, stay alive’, about the dangers of subway surfing. The audio announcements, on-train advertisements, videos and animations created by Manhattan High School of Art and Design students have become a fixture in subway stations and on trains across the system since the campaign began last fall.

______________

Visit nydailynews.com.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.