Security Blanket

As a result of last week's bombings in the London Underground, New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has stepped-up security in Manhattan, with special attention being paid to the Subway system. He has promised that there will be at least one NYPD officer - uniformed or plainclothes - on every train operating in what is the world's largest rapid transit system. There are roughly 6500 individual subway cars in the MTA's fleet, operating on a little over 650 miles of mainline track- so it's an enterprising and costly undertaking.

Today was the first day that I really noticed the elevated NYPD presence. On the ride home from Grand Central Station to the Wall Street station, there was a uniformed officer in our car. At the Wall Street station, there was a group of four or five officers standing on the platform, looking rather serious. Finally, as I emerged from the station, I noticed a new group of officers on Broadway making their presence very much known: having a pleasant time with each other, helping tourists, and smiling at passers-by.

It's actually really nice to see so many officers in uniform patrolling the city. In the early 1990's, there was hardly any police presence to speak of in New York, which Mayor Rudolph Giuliani quickly remedied. He did this by not only swelling the NYPD's ranks exponentially, but by ordering that they put themselves out in plain sight, in a coordinated and efficient manner.

The only problem I see is that, prior to the bombings in London, the number of officers on the street and in the subways appeared to be at its usual level. In a few weeks, the presence will surely begin regressing back to the norm. So I'm not really sure what all this actually accomplishes at the end of the day.

It's just a fast-acting tonic for our strained and ailing psyches. But it's a good one, and Ray Kelly knows it well.