The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a divisive topic for many New Yorkers as the public transit system faces ongoing problems. The conversation appeared to reach a boiling point this week after a photo of a man sleeping under chairs in a subway car shifted blame for inadequate policing to Mayor Bill de Blasio.

The New York Post posted the photo of the sleeping man Saturday and reported that 3 train riders were “oblivious” to man’s presence. Both a high-ranking MTA official and Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday slammed de Blasio, who they said should be doing more to police the city’s subway lines and more effectively assist its homeless population.

“The fact is that since 1995 the NYPD has been the police force charged with enforcement in the subway system,” Chairman of the MTA Joe Lhota said in a statement. “The MTA board gave Mayor [Rudy] Giuliani the authority to consolidate the Transit Police within the NYPD, giving the City primary jurisdiction. That’s a fact.”

Lhota said that the NYPD “needs to enhance its homeless outreach efforts in the subways,” adding that the MTA was “again are asking the NYPD to step up their presence and increase enforcement and the city must stop running from its responsibility.”

Cuomo, speaking at a press conference Monday, said no one is benefited from allowing homeless individuals to sleep on trains and echoed Lhota’s sentiment, the New York Post reported. He added that the city’s homeless population should instead be directed to safe shelters.

“It is a distortion to say we’re letting homeless people sleep on subway cars and in stations because we care about the homeless,” he said. “If you care about the homeless, put them in a safe, clean, decent shelter.”

For his part, de Blasio expressed concern about the photo and said Sunday that it was “not acceptable for people to sleep on a subway train like that” and promised more stringent enforcement.

“A case like that would be enforceable and we’ll enforce it. We’ll put whatever personnel we need on to stop something like that from happening,” he said. He said police could use “discretion” as to whether or not to arrest individuals for such misconduct.

According to the MTA’s code of conduct, commuters may not “sleep or doze where such activity may be hazardous to such person or to others or may interfere with the operation of the Authority's transit system or the comfort of its passengers.”

RELATED STORIES