The NYPD is focusing on a drone program to help combat subway surfing

By Josephine Stratman and Cayla Bamberger

Source New York Daily News

Mayor Adams on Thursday praised a drone initiative aimed at dealing with the situation surfing in the subwayfollowing six people have died this yearincluding two teenagers who died during surfing in the subway just last week.

Adams praised the New York Police Department drone program as a way the city tries to prevent more deaths.

“We will see fatalities, but rarely is a medal awarded for lives saved,” the mayor said at a news conference outside a Queens school near the elevated No. 7 train. “And these offices, this team and this technology are saving lives.”

The aerial drone program began last year as a pilot this initiative and in June this year it was made permanent – informed New York Police officials.

The NYPD has two drones that operate after school from 2-5 p.m., flying over the J, M, Z and 7 subway lines to alert officers on the scene if subway surfer is noticed. Then the officers stop the daredevils at the metro station and take them into custody.

Since the program began a year ago, 114 people have been brought in for help after drones flagged them as subway surfers. Officials said about 40 of those people were arrested more than once for subway surfing.

“They described it as a concern. We define it as a life saved,” said Kaz Daughtry, deputy commissioner of operations for the New York Police Department.

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

“Social media companies must step up, take down these videos and stop inflicting harmful challenges on our children,” Nazario said.

A 13-year-old girl, Krystel Romero, stayed behind the sixth person to die while subway surfing this year after she and another teenager fell off the Manhattan-bound 7 train in Corona, Queens, on Sunday and were run over by the train. Her friend was seriously injured. Krystel’s death occurred less than a week later Adolf Sorzano died in the same manner after falling from an M train in Ridgewood, Queens.

In September an An 11-year-old boy, Cayden Thompsondied while surfing on the subway in Park Slope, Brooklyn – recently the youngest person to die as a result of a dangerous stunt.

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 also launched an awareness campaign with the warning slogan “Subway Surfing Kills – Get In, Stay Alive” about the dangers of subway surfing. Since the campaign launched last fall, audio announcements, in-train advertisements, videos and animations created by Manhattan High School of Art and Design students have become fixtures on subways and trains across the system.

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