Transit crime spikes nearly 11% in July with felony assaults, robberies helping fuel rise: NYPD
Transit crime in the Big Apple spiked nearly 11% last month — a surge cops partially blamed on violent and sticky-fingered recidivists Monday.July saw 173 transit crimes overall, compared to 156 during the same month last year, according to newly released NYPD statistics.The increase was largely fueled by felony assaults and non-violent grand larcenies, police officials said.Felony assaults accounted for 27% (47) of all transit crime during July, while grand larcenies — or thefts of property valued at more than $1,000 — made up 51.4% (88), officials said.Roughly half those felony assaults were committed against three different types of victim: NYPD cops, MTA employees and the elderly, according to officials.Assaults on elderly straphangers accounted for nearly 21% of felony assaults in July, with 10 recorded compared to four during the same month last year, or a 150% increase, authorities said.So far this year, crime underground increased by 1% — or 14 incidents overall, according to the NYPD data.Felony assaults during that span increased 8.3%, or by 30 attacks, data shows.
Attacks on the elderly increased by 46.7%, or 66 assaults during 2026 so far compared to 45 last year, data shows.Assaults against NYPD cops and MTA employees largely stayed flat.
In a bright spot, unprovoked felony assaults went down 12.3%, data shows.Law-enforcement sources argued recidivists — such as Joseph Zimmerman, 56, who has been arrested at least 50 times and previously highlighted in a February exposé by The Post — helped fuel many of those increases.Zimmerman remains free despite a long criminal record, including an April arrest inside Broadway-Lafayette subway station, records show.He was found sprawled out in the station, allegedly with a dollar bill coated in meth powder and a crack pipe with residue inside, sources said.The career criminal also had an open grand larceny warrant for allegedly stealing a woman’s wallet at the Grand Street subway station in March, ...