Transcript: Mayor Adams Urges New Yorkers to Call 911 to Combat Subway Surfing, Highlights Life-Saving Tech

October 31, 2024

Deputy Mayor Chauncey Parker, Public Safety: Good afternoon everyone, I am Chauncey Parker, I'm the deputy mayor of Public Safety for Mayor Adams and his team, we are joined here today with Mayor Adams, Police Commissioner Tom Donlon, New York City Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos and NYPD Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry, NYPD Chief of Transit Joseph Gulotta, and also Norma Nazario, who unfortunately knows first hand the heartbreaking loss of a child and through bravery and courage is going to say a few words today. We are also joined by Councilmember Rita Joseph, the education chair, and Councilmember Julie Won.

We are here today in the wake of two tragedies. Two children, 13 years old, recently, who died riding on top of a subway car. These deaths are heartbreaking. These deaths are preventable. The mayor's North Star for New York City is to keep people safe, especially, above all people, young people. And today is the mayor's call, not really a call, it's a cry for action, to everyone, to all New Yorkers, to spread the word, to talk to family members, educators, any community members, but to spread the word to young people across the city that this activity of riding on top of subways is so dangerous, it's the most dangerous thing they can do, and we have to stop it. But the mayor's North Star is that we can accomplish anything if we work together. If we work together, we can save lives. And with that, it's my great honor to introduce the mayor of New York City, Eric Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you, thank you so much. You know, this is, we introduce everyone that's here, but one thing, I want to include in that introduction, and that's the young people behind us, because it is all about how this experience traumatized not only families, family members. Because I think sometimes when we think about this incident, if someone were to tell me that my son, while he was in school, was subway surfing, the visual in my mind would be, well, you know, children would be children. No, this is what we're talking about. This is subway surfing.

It sounds harmless, but it is not harmless. That train that we hear behind you is filled with steel, metal. The third rail is extremely dangerous. Being on top, if you fall, even if the train is not moving, you have the potential of slipping through the cracks of the train, just a fall is harmful. And when you deal with the elevated platform, like the 7 Line, which is one of the most frequently subway surfing locations, you are actually elevating the level of threat and potential death. This is real. This is just not having fun. It can be fatal. And that's why we're here today. And I'm happy to have the young people who are here, as well, because they are going to be the ambassadors to end subway surfing, because it's their colleagues and friends.

And when we came together to do the PSA announcement, we leaned towards them, because they know how to communicate on social media, which is one of the top culprits in this crisis that we're facing on subway surfing. Because we didn't know anything about, as a young person growing up in South Jamaica, Queens, we knew nothing about likes. We knew nothing about someone clicking on our photos or pictures. We walked around with a Polaroid, and we were lucky if 13 people saw it. Now you have 30 million people watching your likes. That becomes intoxicating. And it's an adrenaline rush. And then you compete to see who can do something more dangerous on top of the train in the process. And that's why we have changed the dynamic, and we have met this threat head on.

As a former transit police officer in 1984, when I became a police officer, there was a one-dimensional approach to patrolling our subway system, and that was on the ground. You had no understanding of what was happening on top of the train, and in fact, I didn't even know what the top of the train looked like. But now, with the introduction of drones, and with Commissioner Daughtry, the deputy commissioner of Operations, and the police commissioner, what we have done, we have changed the dynamics, and we've become more proactive by allowing the drone operation to be incorporated in the heavily-used train lines where subway surfing is taking place.

It's a combination of the patrol force on the ground, it's a combination of our team at One Police Plaza that's monitoring these lines based on 311 and 911 data, and it's a combination of everyday New Yorkers who see this taking place and report it to us, and then it's the young people who are part of the PSAs that we're putting together. So what does it look like based on our analysis? 900 flights, 900 flights, and these flights are pennies on the dollars. This is an inexpensive way of handling the expense of losing a loved one or child. Out of those 900 flights, we had 114 lives we saved because our drones identified the individuals and young people while they were on the train.

Here's a number that's startling. The average age is 14. We have young people as young as 9, and as old as 33. Can you imagine a 9-year-old on top of that train? And the young people we've lost, look at the ages of these young people. And so last year when the governor and I and New York City Public Schools, when we made the announcement of really focusing on having our law enforcement officers go into the homes of those who are caught subway surfing and making sure that we communicate with the family members in a real way, we know how important it is.

From 2021 to 2022, we had a 366 percent increase in subway surfing, and it's solely connected to the social media aspect of this. So we're going after the social media companies and social media platforms to state they have an obligation not to put profit over public safety. And this is so important, what we're doing. We're going to continue to partner with the schools chancellor and her team so we can zero in on this major issue that we're facing.

You can't lose young people in this magnitude. And oftentimes when we go to parents, Commissioner Daughtry was sharing with me earlier today, when we go to parents and we say their children are subway surfing, they say, no, it can't be my child. It's not possible. This has not happened. We all believe our children are angels. That is what a parent is about. But when we showed them the video, when we showed them these photos, when we showed them how dangerous it is that their child is on top of the train, it has a major impact. And so I want to thank all of our partners, the NYPD, the chancellor of New York City Public Schools, deputy mayor, public safety, the entire team, but most importantly, I want to thank the young people who are here. They can stop this by using their voice, the power of our youth, and going after social media and calling for a change.

We saw the power of our young people yesterday when we announced December 23rd being the day off for our young people. It was simply because a young person wrote a letter and said, can we look into this? So their voices matter and it matters here to tell their loved ones, their colleagues, their schoolmate, subway surfing is not a game. It is a dangerous, dangerous encounter and we lost young people from this last week. One young person was a friend, her and her classmate were subway surfing. One lost her life, the other is in critical condition. This is not what it's like. Parents don't want to have to experience this and our goal is to eradicate it as much as possible. Again, thank you, D.M. Parker.

Deputy Mayor Parker Thank you, Mayor Adams, for your leadership. Our next speaker is the police commissioner, Thomas Donlon.

Interim Police Commissioner Thomas Donlon: Thank you, Chauncey, and thank you, Mr. Mayor, and thank you for your leadership, Mr. Mayor, for bringing us together today to address this serious issue. We're here to reinforce that riding on top of moving subway trains is reckless and unsafe, and I know we all understand that, but it's happening and we need to think seriously about why.

Our children are motivated by social media, are putting their lives at risk on a daily basis. This behavior is dangerous, illegal, and deadly, and the NYPD, along with our agency partners, include many of them who are here today, will continue to do everything possible to stop it. That includes the deployment of our transit drone team under the great leadership of Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry, who will explain their mission in more detail in a moment.

And I must reinforce that the NYPD uses technology, both on criminal, terrorism, and other matters, so it's something that we employ on our daily routines regarding investigations or situations like this. We are using this technology, drone technology, to respond to the thousands of 911 calls, so we get each day regarding subway surfing. Our drones get us to the scene faster, they help us track incidents longer, and from a safe distance. And they provide this video we can immediately show to the parents, so the parents can see firsthand the danger these dead children are putting themselves in. The work is saving lives, but again, we need to focus on why this is happening in the first place. We need to involve parents and guardians before a tragedy happens. Proactive approach that we employ here with the NYPD. And as the mayor said, it's time to start holding social media companies accountable for hosting these videos on their sites.

We don't glorify violence, or hate, or any other criminal activity on these websites, and we must stop glorifying subway surfing. Every injury, every death, is 100 percent preventable. So the NYPD will continue to enforce the law under the direction and leadership of our Chief of Patrol, John Chell, and our newly appointed Chief of Transit, Joe Gulotta. And we're also working closely with the mayor on a daily basis, along with the MTA and the DOE. And our agency partners are educated, our young people and their families, which is so, so important. We're going to provide guidance and support and appeal to everyone's common sense, and we're going to put an end to this reckless behavior. Thank you.

Deputy Mayor Parker: Thank you, Commissioner Donlon. Our next speaker is the chancellor of the New York City Public Schools, Melissa Aviles-Ramos.

Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos: Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you, Mayor Adams and D.M. Parker and our police commissioner for all being here today. I also want to thank Superintendent Hidalgo and Principal Jorge for your partnership in this district. As a mother of a New York City Public School student myself, the thought of our children riding atop a subway car is terrifying and distressing to me on a very personal level. And after having a conversation with Ms. Nazario this morning, I can only say that to imagine her heartbreak is- there are no words.

And Ms. Nazario, you have my promise, not only as a chancellor and as an educator, but as a mother, to stand with you so other families can hear from you, and we thank you for your advocacy and support. I want to talk to you about what we are doing at New York City Public Schools to fight this incredibly dangerous trend. Last year, we launched a campaign in deep partnership with the MTA called Ride Inside, Stay Alive to raise awareness about this issue.

This campaign was designed by our talented students from the High School of Art and Design. Our students made posters that were displayed on MTA subway lines across the system, and they recorded PSAs that were played in subway stations throughout the city. Approximately 450 hardcopy anti-subway surfing posters and 500 anti-subway surfing palm cards were hand-delivered to over 60 schools in close proximity to the JMZ and 7 train lines. With this campaign, we are amplifying student voice and peer-to-peer messaging to fight the potentially dangerous effects of peer pressure and social media. Our students are our best messengers, which is why we focus on not only student engagement, but student empowerment.

We know we will continue elevating student voice to bring attention to this issue. And of course, we also need to directly educate our kids about the dangers of subway surfing. To that end, we have collaborated with the NYPD Transit Bureau to give anti-subway surfing presentations prior to and during the 24-25 school year to approximately 1,300 students. And importantly, we are continuing to engage families. We are continuing to empower families. We just hosted a community safety forum in collaboration with NYPD, the Department of Youth and Community Development, and other city agencies to hear from families and share their safety resources from across city government.

I want to thank all of our partners in this work, especially the NYPD and MTA. Across both state and city agencies, we are standing shoulder-to-shoulder in the fight against subway surfing. Working together and in partnership with our communities, I believe we can put an end to these tragic, devastating incidents and create a safer city for all of our young people.

Deputy Mayor Parker: Thank you, chancellor. Our next speaker is the deputy commissioner of Operations for the NYPD, Kaz Daughtry.

Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry, Operations, Police Department: Thank you, deputy mayor. Thank you, everyone, for being here. The issue of subway surfing poses a serious threat to our youths. The solution requires several different approaches, and we have developed a four-pronged method that aims effectively to eliminate the danger from our community. First and foremost, rescuing these children before they are hurt requires a team effort, and the use of drone technology has made this task a lot more easier.

As you can see here from the videos that are playing behind me, drones provide the necessary aerial overwatch, allowing our officers to quickly locate and save these children before they get themselves injured. This year, drones have been deployed over 909 times for transit operations. Your officers have successfully saved the lives of 114 subway surfers. However, that's just one part of the solution. Many of these children are influenced by social media. The subway surfing videos that are posted on social media attract an audience unlike anything many of us experienced growing up. While we utilize drone technology to address problems, social media has also played a continuing role in this effort.

We are actively collaborating with various social media platforms to leverage the algorithms and artificial intelligence to identify and remove these accounts that promote subway surfing content. By doing this, we aim to eliminate any opportunity for likes, comments, or praise associated with this dangerous act. Communication is the key. We are making strides by partnering with teachers and educators who serve as vital mentors. We need to encourage a discussion in the classrooms about the realities of subway surfing, highlighting that such behavior can lead to permanent disfigurement or, in certain cases, death. It is not glamorous. It is tragic.

By fostering this dialogue, we hope to prevent these actions before they even occur. Finally, we cannot address this issue without the involvement of parents. Parents know their children best, and after every subway surfing incident, we share the drone footage with each parent. Open conversations at home are critical. Everything starts within the family. By fostering these discussions, we can work together to tackle this challenge. In conclusion, while this issue may seem complex, our priority remains clear-the safety of our children. The solution is multifaceted, and NYPD is committed to working hand-in-hand with the community to put an end to subway surfing.

Together, we can protect and save the lives of all of our children. I just want to go over some quick numbers real quick. Total surfing operations that we have deployed the drone with is 153 times. The total lives saved are 114 times. What you're seeing in this video behind me here that's playing, the drone captured 70 incidents from January 1st to now of subway surfing incidents. They have labeled these as apprehensions. We're labeling them as live save.

When the parents come into the commands and into the transit district, and when they watch their child, their loved ones, on top of this train, the attention doesn't focus on NYPD anymore. It focuses on the kids because they cannot believe what they are watching in the transit district when they're seeing their child surfing on top of these train stations. Like the mayor said before, the youngest surfer that we have saved is nine years old. The average is 14 to 15 years of age. Thank you.

Deputy Mayor Parker: Thank you, Commissioner Daughtry. Our next speaker is the Chief of the Transit Bureau for the NYPD, Chief Joseph Gulotta.

Chief Joseph Gulotta, Transit, Police Department: In my short tenure as the chief of Transit, I've already seen the effect this has on people. I spoke to a mother today who lost her son. I have my detectives out from my office that met with parents, and when they showed up at the person's house, the mother was petrified that we were going to notify her that her son was dead from subway surfing. This is not a game. This is very serious.

Part of what we're going to do is education, which we're already doing with the Department of Education, as the chancellor said. We're also going to go out and do visits to families. That's proven to be very effective right now. We have parents that are telling us, my son's surfing right now. As we speak, two of my detectives just got a call before we started saying, my son's surfing on the Seven Line. That is going to be a real outreach goal we're going to have as we go forward. We want a partnership with the parents. We want to get into the schools. We want to have credible messengers that say, hey, this is not worth doing. I said firsthand, I met a mother who lost her son. As a father of two children, this is unacceptable. We have to do better. We will do better. Thank you.

Deputy Mayor Parker: Thank you, chief. Our next speaker is Norma Nazario, who has suffered the ultimate tragedy for any parent. For any of us, I think it would break us, and you're one of those remarkable people. Instead, what you've done is become a voice that ripples through the city and through every single family to try to save other children. Thank you.

Norma Nazario: Thank you. Thanks for having me. My name is Norma Nazario, and I'm Zachary's mom. Zach was an old soul whose favorite artists were Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra. He always loved history. His teachers called him the historian. He was always teaching me new things he learned. He especially loved the history of New York and learning about the New York City subway system. He was sent subway surfing challenges videos through social media algorithms. Zach was only just 15 years old when he died riding on top of a subway. I miss him every day.

I am holding Zach's funeral card today, and I think no mother, no mother should have to carry her child's funeral card. I'm here because we need to do more to keep our kids safe, and I'm glad that Mayor Adams is. I'm grateful to Mayor Adams and the NYPD for this new drone initiative. Already it saved more than 100 lives. That's 100 families who don't have to live with the heartbreak that I am living every day that I carry with me, and 100 kids who will continue to live and learn. And the social media companies need to step up. Take this video down and stop pushing harmful challenges to our kids. Social media has a role to play here, too, and they're not doing it. Not one child should lose their life, and no other family should have to live without their beloved child. Our message is clear. Ride inside and stay alive. Thank you, guys.

Deputy Mayor Parker: Thank you, Ms. Nazario. Our next speaker is Councilmember Rita Joseph, who's the chair of the Education Committee for the New York City Council. Thank you.

City Councilmember Rita Joseph: Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Councilmember Rita Joseph, also the chair of the Education Committee. And today, I'm deeply concerned about the alarming rising of subway surfing incident in our city, particularly with the young people, and that's who I fight for and behalf.

So Mayor Adams, thank you for this initiative to use technology. The utilization of 911 call data drone deployment is a crucial step toward this issue. But we must also, for example, Parent Teacher Conference Night is coming up. Just some ideas. Make sure that we are alerting parents as they come in. Put PSAs on radios, TVs, and put them on different languages so parents know when they're talking to these children. Those are crucial and easy fix. Some of the easy ways we can get parents involved, engage our CBOs, engage our non-for-profits who work with young people every single day to make sure the messaging is getting out.

All of us have a part to play in this, and that includes social media, who should put down the videos as soon as they go up. They should put them down. So we also have to hold them accountable, and we need all parents, all peer models, all students involved in this conversation. So PTA Parent Teacher Conference is coming up. That's one way when you have parents in the building, engage them in that conversation. And throughout the year, continue to engage and teach them about the safety of writing inside, not outside. Thank you.

Deputy Mayor Parker: Thank you, Chair Joseph. And our last speaker is Councilmember Julie Won.

City Councilmember Julie Won: Stay inside and you stay alive. Almost a year ago, I was here with Mayor Adams, as well as NYPD and the rest of the team under Bliss Plaza on 40th Street on the 7 train, because we've had five lives lost a year ago. And now we stand here again, six lives lost, but we had 114 saved. That's still not enough. No mother, like Norma, should ever have to bury their child first before they die. That kind of heartache is one that I never wish upon any mother in this city.

No amount of likes or views on social media is worth your life. We have a serious cultural conversation that we have to have as a society across the country and across the world on how our children view themselves, on how their worth is now amounted to, how many likes they wake up to when they open up their social media account in the morning, how popular they are in school because of how many views they had on a video that they created.

The 7 train is meant to be ridden inside, not on the outside. And in addition to the verbal campaign to make sure that children are understanding you have to stay inside to stay alive, which other students were taken to make these campaign videos and voice notes. But now we're adding an additional layer of precaution to make sure that the NYPD drones are keeping these children inside. When I take my commute on the 7 train from my office on Queens Boulevard to City Hall, I've had two instances where I've had to pull the emergency lever because I watched as the children of the high schools in my district were climbing up to subway surf. That is unacceptable.

And I thank all of our principals, we're at PS11 right now, to Principal Elizabeth Peña-George who has been a great partner along with all the other principals and the school chancellor and our chair, Joseph, to make sure that our educators are working with our parents and our peer mentors to say this is enough. We cannot have any more children lost. We have to invest in after school programs, make sure that students have hobbies like sports, like the Mets, play some baseball, after school sports, whatever it may be. We got to keep them inside, keep them busy, and make sure that they're really pursuing their dreams and their purpose and have a vision for their lives, that it's not just about getting a few likes on social media to find their self-worth. Thank you so much.

Deputy Mayor Parker: Thank you Councilmember Juan. Thank you Mayor Adams for your leadership, our elected official partners, our agency partners, Ms. Nazario in particular, thank you to you for your courage and your leadership in saving lives across the city. And now at this point, we're going to demonstrate for you how drones, as one of the city's tools, is saving lives as has been talked about earlier.

Deputy Commissioner Daughtry: Alright, so we're going to demonstrate, our [inaudible] detectives are going to demonstrate what they do every single day, Monday through Friday, along Roosevelt Avenue. There are strategic locations that we actually pick on the roofs of Roosevelt Avenue, and the Skydio X10 drone is going to perform a subway surfing directed patrol, as we call it.

[Crosstalk.]

Okay, so as you can see the pilot, the pilot is watching the trains as they come in. Like the mayor said before, the number 7 line is probably one of our most prolific subway lines for subway surfing in the city. Point being is, there's a particular area between Junction Boulevard and 103rd Street where you can get the most iconic view of the skyline. If you look at those pictures there, that was taken from our drone from subway surfing. Those are the photos, those are the videos that our young adults, our youngsters like because they're just iconic photos and they get the most likes and shares on it.

I think I've seen one subway post where, subway surfer post where it was viewed over 45 million times because they like the backdrop. And I watched, I read some of the comments where folks were commenting on the backdrop of the actual post. But if you can see, the drones can, they can fly up from here all the way down to 74th Street.

They can come all the way back down to 111th Street. And we have officers in plain clothes, some in uniform, when the train's pulling into the station, when they identify a subway surfer, they will pull into the station. We already have that description and what type of individual we're looking for. Some of the kids get a little crafty where, when they're coming down off of the train, they'll take off their jacket, they'll take off their shirt and put another shirt on because they know sometimes that the drones are watching them. But we already have them identified before they even do that so, and that has happened several times.

But that's just a quick demonstration. If you could look, look at the skyline in the back, you know, when the train is pulling into the next station. You can see that's the sky, that's the, that's the picture that they want. They want that skyline, they want that view, and that's what's going to give them a lot of likes and shares.

This is a live feed, as you're seeing. And not only are the officers watching, looking at their handheld devices, but this stream is also being streamed into our Joint Operations Center, and any one of the executives, any one of the executives that wants to watch a real life subway surfing patrol, directed patrols with our drones. That's just a quick overview. We're not going to, thank you, you can come back. C

Question: Yeah, I'm just curious, because I know the 7 line, after 52nd Street, it goes on Queens Boulevard. So will you have police officers there? And secondly, you know, what is, I'm just trying to figure out, for writing this, if you've had the drones in place for at least a year, since last November, at least that's what's from the video show, is there an element of this that's different, or is there an update in reaction, in response, to the two people, the one death and the other one? I mean, is there an element of this that's different, or is there an update in reaction, in response, to the two people, the one death and the other one?

Mayor Adams: Yeah, first, first, the drones can move where the needs are. We are analyzing 311 and 911 data to determine what is the best location. The hours where we find that the subway surfing is taking place, is it 2 to 5?

Between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m., after school hours. All experts tell you after school hours is a very difficult time for some form of mischief, no matter what it is. And so that's how we determine where we're going to place them. If we see the 311 and 911 data showing us it needs to be shifted to another location, we would do that as well. And so when you say, what is being done differently now, is number one, we now have a good view of analyzing the data.

Over 100 lives were saved, and now we see, we did a pilot, to see the need and what we're going to be able to effectively save lives. And after doing the pilot, we realized that, yes, this can save lives, this could be proactive and reactive. When you look at the stations, if only a real transit officer would be able to tell you, when you pull into a station, you can't see on top of the train. And we're changing a one-dimensional patrol to a multi-dimensional by utilizing the sky to be complementary to the patrol. Not only are you complementary to the patrol of the trains, but you're complementary to the entire route that's connected to it as well. So this is something we're going to expand. We're going to move the pilot to expand even more, because it's doing the job that we expected.

Question: How many drones are in use now that it's no longer in the pilot phase? Do you have those numbers available?

Deputy Commissioner Daughtry: The department has approximately 109 drones in its fleet, and we're looking to purchase some more drones. We're still working to decide what company we're going to go to. There's two companies that we're looking at that we're piloting now, Skydio Drones, X10, Nightingale, and I think BRINCs is another one. But we're looking to phase out our DJI drones, because those are not American-made drones. Those are drones that were made in China. And we're looking to slowly phase them out of our fleet.

[Crosstalk.]

Question: So when you say you've saved 100 lives, I'm curious to know how enforcement meshes with the drone photos. So do you stop the train? Do you make an arrest? Are you arresting these children that are doing, you know, if they're under 18, as you say many of them are, are they being arrested? What's happening?

Chief Gulotta: So, like we said earlier, it saves. So we're bringing them in, we're taking them into custody, we're bringing them to their parents, and we're having a discussion with the parents. So on top of the drones, all in total, we have 181 saves in transit. How the operation works is we have plainclothes officers, like Commissioner Daughtry said, along the line. They're there, the deployment's there. And as we get radio runs, we have officers on the trains that actively ride the trains, which is a big part of what we do, especially on the subway surfing lines. And those officers also make apprehensions as part of this.

Question: If they don't go up to the roof of the train, how do they get the kids to come down? Or how do they, you know, effectuate an apprehension?

Chief Gulotta: We have spotters, we see them coming down in between the cars, and we'll get them coming down in between the cars.

Question: Obviously there's been deaths this year, so this hasn't been completely 100 percent foolproof. What's the process before a drone goes up? Does someone have to see a child going up before they make the call before the drone goes? Can I get the process? Or are you just sending drones out to check every train that's...

Deputy Commissioner Daughtry: No, so the process is, we have a waiver from the FAA, we have [inaudible] for a year where we can launch these drones autonomously throughout the whole city. The chief of transit, Joe Gulotta, gives us the exact times and locations based upon the 311 and 911 calls that he's seen from his analytical team. And then we place them strategically along Roosevelt Avenue where we think that we're going to, where the data is taking us.

We don't have to make a phone call to call up saying we're going to launch a drone. The drone pilots have an app. They put the app, what type of operation they're going to be doing for the day. It gets sent to the FAA, or the JFK Tower, or the LaGuardia Tower. So our commercial traffic airlines and our commercial helicopter traffic know that there's drones in the area, and they perform their directed patrols like any other police officers in the city, but they're looking with the drone cameras, scouring up and down the train line at Roosevelt Avenue.

And not only are they looking for subway surfers, let me just be very clear about this, they're also looking for any type of anomalies on the actual station, whether it be a fight, whether it be a medical emergency, whether it be a disorderly group. So answering 911 calls may be lost child, pickpocket. So these drones are actually performing a patrol function as well as the subway surfing as well.

Mayor Adams: That's important, because that was your question, is that this is a new aspect of patrol. It is a game changer. Patrol has not been altered in probably the last hundred years. And what we are doing in this city, we are changing the concept of patrol. And it's pennies on the dollars, and it allows us to use an overhead observation.

So what you're seeing in real time is we're changing the aspect of patrol. Normally an officer will walk up and down that platform and see if there's a condition that needs to be corrected. We have now used technology to allow that officer to not only walk on top of that platform, but to see what is happening not at one station, but we can actually see several stations out. This is a huge, huge success for police officers that are on patrol utilizing technology to do so. So we're changing the philosophy of patrol and what it looks like.

Question: Hi, I wanted to ask you about the marketing campaign. How can you measure the efficacy of that? You know, you tell kids don't do this thing. How can you tell whether they're actually listening? And why was that method chosen?

Mayor Adams: The best analogy, Ozzie Smith, who was a great shortstop, why he was paid so much. He didn't hit a lot of home runs, but the owner of the team said, how many runs did he save? And so we never really acknowledge how many lives that are saved. We focus on how many lives that are lost.

What we do know based on this technology is that over 100 young people between the ages of 9 and 33 were identified and were removed from off the top of the train. That is what we are looking at. And so, yes, you know, we will see the lives that are lost, but rarely do you get the medal for the lives that are saved. And these officers and this team and this technology is saving lives.

Question: Just to clarify, I know you asked, but so when the kids are saved off the train and when they're apprehended and brought to the parents, they're not being arrested?

Mayor Adams: Chief Gulotta, do you want to talk about the process?

Chief Gulotta: All right, so we do a juvenile report, we get the parents in, and we speak to the parents. That's the key to this. So it's bringing them in, getting to their parents, speaking to the parents. And I want to also say we have recidivists that have ridden the train. We have 41 people that we've arrested more than once doing this. Those are the people we're really focusing on right now because they're really pushing the social media and they're the ones behind it, some as many as five times.

Question: And just in addition to this program expanding now with this new data and obviously unfortunately with the six deaths that we've had, is there anything in addition to this like physically to the MTA trains that you might be exploring a decision about? Just one of the parents today of [inaudible] just said, you know, why can kids physically get on top of the trains? Is there anything that can be done about that?

Mayor Adams: That's a MTA question. There's some type of modification they want to make on top of the trains. Their technology to do that, our job is to give them input, observation. They've been great partners on this. You know, should we look at other methods to stop children from getting on top of the trains? Those are the conversations for the MTA.

Question: Would you want to see that happen?

Mayor Adams: Yes, I would love to if it's feasible. You know, because there's a lot in operating our system. Some of these trains go underground. And so you have to be careful of what mechanism. Like the 7 train goes underground. And there's a short, a small overhead to allow it to go underground. And so the design must meet the desire. But if we can prevent children from getting on top of the trains, we would love to do that. But subway surfing is also those who ride on the side of the train. You know, when the desire is there, we have to encourage people not to participate in the behavior.

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor. A related question. The MTA said a year ago that they were looking into what they could do about that. Have you or any member of your team heard anything from the MTA about a specific engineering solution?

Mayor Adams: No. No, we have not. And I'm sure if Janno, who has really been a partner on all of these initiatives, if he stated they're looking into it, they're looking into it. The designs of these trains, you know, it's extremely complicated. You're dealing with a New York City transit system, one of the most complex systems on the globe. And making sure the trains can be operational and safe at the same time.

You know, there was a desire to connect the cars like what you see in Dubai and other places. I know there were some structure issues around doing that connection where people couldn't get out to get on top that easily. But I'm sure they're looking at other methods to try to resolve this issue.

Question: I'm just wondering, is it not a little bit of a misnomer to say lives saved since the technology isn't actually getting people off the trains or preventing them from going on the trains?

Mayor Adams: Well, I think if you want to use that method, you know, how many lives did we save by seatbelts? We don't count, you know, the success of seatbelts by the number of deaths. We count it by the number of lives. The same with airbags. The same with child seats.

No one reports when that child's seat saves the life of a child that's in an accident. You report it when that child is not in it. And so to not really understand why removing 100 people off the top of the trains is not a way of saving lives, we may just have to disagree on that. I think it's a way of saving lives.

Question: Who came up with the idea? What was the genesis of the pilot?

Mayor Adams: We're always thinking. And chief of commission, deputy commissioner of operations, same person that thought about using drones at our beaches to drop life rafts. The same to use drones to go after criminal behavior instead of using helicopters that cost thousands of dollars to fuel. Our goal has always been, how do you save taxpayers' dollars with effective products? And this is one of Kaz Daughtry's, Commissioner Daughtry's brain child, and I commend him for always pushing the envelope and saying, how can we do it better?

Question: Hi, yes. My question is, how many drones are being used for this initiative? What are the patrol shifts? And then to the DOE, I wanted to know, I thought I heard you mention that only 1,300 students have gotten [inaudible].

And then the last question was to the DOE. I thought I heard only 1,300 students have gone through the subway surfing education program. Is there a way to increase that number? Are you going to make that a mandatory class going forward?

Mayor Adams: Kaz, you want to deal with the number of drones and chancellor, you can deal with the class?

Deputy Commissioner Daughtry: Yes, sir. Thank you. The number of drones for this initiative is two drones, one drone team, two drones, Skydio X10s. And what they do is, the drone life is about 30 minutes between 25 and 30 minutes up in the air. Flight time, depending on winds and weather, they'll come down, they'll switch the battery up and they'll deploy the same exact drones. We have about two or three drone teams that go to different locations throughout the city between the hours of 2 p.m. and between 5:30 and 6:00.

Chancellor Aviles-Ramos: We are in the process of expanding the PSAs and the student videos to our other students in other schools. We're working closely with our superintendents and our principals. And that's precisely the reason why we wanted these to be student-driven. We know that sometimes young people listening to adults, it's not really landing on them the way that it does with their peers. And so hearing from students who have actually been friends with people they have seen subway surfing and have been very hurt and died, it's very powerful when the young people speak to other young people. So, yes, we are expanding and that's why they are student-driven.

Question: A specific conversation with social media platforms?

Mayor Adams: Yes, yes. And we sat down with social media companies and talked about, you know, the impact of not only subway surfing but everything from drill music to other antisocial behaviors that are promoted on social media.

Any of you that have young people in your family, you know, I mean, our children, you know, these young people would tell you they spend a lot of time on social media and they are, you know, just motivated by some of the things that they do. Like we all were. Like I used the analogy earlier, you know, I would go to a karate movie as a child and come out and thought I was Bruce Lee and mimic kicking and what have you. So it's just a natural desire to see what you see on TV. TV has changed. Now it's in the palm of our hands and it's being used all the time.

And a lot of the behavior that we're seeing on social media has really become counterproductive to young people on so many levels. And I really believe there needs to be a national call for action to address what social media is doing to our children. And that's our goal. We're going to do our job until the country catches up. We're going to utilize what Dr. Vasan has done and others have done to, you know, compel social media to change its ways and we're going to continue to do that. But in the meantime, we're going to put some eyes in the sky. Thank you.

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