The NYPD wants to stop crime by waking up snoozing subway passengers

New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton has a bold new plan to prevent crime on the subway and, as much as we'd hoped that it involved summoning Batman or turning small rodents into police informants, it does not. Instead, Bratton says that the department's officers will be instructed to wake people up if they've fallen asleep during their commute. That's right, no more naps on the N-train, not unless you want to have your own personal NYPD alarm clock.

During a news conference, Bratton said:

"One of the areas that we want to focus on is subways are not for sleeping. I know a lot of people are tired, they work very hard, but our officers are going to be instructed to wake people up [...] Seriously, by sleeping, you make yourself, as reflected in our crime stats, a very easy victim."

Those crime stats he mentioned reflect an increase in crime on the city's subway system this year. According to the New York Daily News, there has been a 36% increase in transit crime during the first few weeks of 2016, including 10 stabbings or slashings. The tenth victim, a 30-year-old Brooklyn man, had his chin sliced with a knife just hours after Bratton held his press conference.

Bratton's plan — if you can call waking people up a plan —  has been met with some eye rolls and criticism, mainly from subway riders. Curtis Sliwa, the founder of volunteer crime prevention organization the Guardian Angels, told the Daily News:

"The police commissioner blamed you ... those who work two or three shifts and fall asleep on the subway for creating these problems. You’re gonna roust them instead of rousting the criminals, the pickpockets ... the perverts, the weenie-wavers. You don’t do this with the homeless people as they lay parallel, sleeping on the subway."

A police source told the paper that the officers would attempt to be selective and would probably ignore someone who'd dozed off during a crowded afternoon commute, but would wake up anyone who was sleeping in an empty car late at night. It is not illegal to sleep on the subway according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, not unless a napper has sprawled across multiple seats, is interfering with other passengers or with the operation of the train.

Could we maybe leave the sleepers alone and do something about the people who cut their toenails on the train?