What you should know
- Subways Transport Average of 5.5 Million People Daily
- Transit Security Grant Program Helps Protect Public-Transit System Against Terrorist Attacks
- Cuts Threaten Anti-Terror, Explosives, Suspicious Activity, and Operational Response Work Conducted by NYPD in Subways
NEW YORK – New York City Mayor Eric Adams today announced the City of New York has filed an amicus brief supporting the State of New York’s ongoing case to prevent the Trump administration from revoking $12 million in grant funding that would be passed from the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) to the New York City Police Department (NYPD) for counterterrorism policing in the subway system. In the brief, the city supports the state’s motion for a preliminary injunction in New York v. Noem, which the federal government opposes.
“The subway system is the lifeblood of our city, making it one of the biggest terrorist targets in the nation, so we cannot afford to lose a single dollar — let alone $12 million — when it comes to protecting 5.5 million daily riders,” said Mayor Adams. “Extremist behavior is taking place across the globe, and these funds are crucial in both being proactive and reactive to the threats to the safety of everyone in our city. We filed this amicus brief to support our state partners in the fight to stop the federal government’s dangerous funding cuts.”
“Cutting federal funds that support vital NYPD counterterrorism efforts endangers all New Yorkers,” said New York City Corporation Counsel Muriel Goode-Trufant. “The Trump administration is risking mass casualties, severe property damage, and public terror to coerce the City of New York into falling in line with its policy priorities. The DHS secretary’s unlawful and dangerous action should be enjoined.”
On September 30, 2025, New York state learned that U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem announced that the federal government was revoking funding under the Transit Security Grant Program (TGSP) that was originally allocated to the MTA for the coming fiscal year. The NYPD is primarily responsible for public safety in the city’s subway system, a component part of the MTA’s transit network, and the MTA planned to pass on $12 million of the grant award to the NYPD for counterterrorism policing in the subways. The NYPD uses the funds to train and support units that detect explosives and chemical and radiological weapons, identify and preempt incipient attacks, train transit officers to respond to active shooter attacks in the subway, and respond effectively to terrorist incidents.
The NYPD plans to use its portion of the grant funds for Fiscal Year 2025 to continue to safeguard the subway-riding public. The grant funding withheld by DHS would support a variety of NYPD deployments that work to keep the subway safe, including:
- Officers on the Radiological Anti-Terror Patrol Train Operational Sweep Team, which inspect critical infrastructure throughout the subway system — including stations, tunnels, equipment rooms, tracks, and train cars — for radiological weapons.
- The Explosive Detection Canine Unit, which patrols the subway system with dogs trained to find chemical, radiological, and nuclear explosives.
- The Mobile Explosive Screening Team, which uses explosive detection equipment to screen passengers’ bags at entrance points.
- The Suspicious Activity Behavior Recognition Team, which sends undercover officers on the subway system to prevent terrorism.
- The Transit Operational Response Canines and Heavy Weapons Team, which patrols entrances during rush hour to deter attacks.
- Funding active-shooter training.
According to the brief, the harm from the loss of those funds will not only endanger the average 5.5 million daily commuters and tourists who ride the subways every day, but all of the city’s 8.5 million residents. The city argues that the DHS secretary’s choice to deny MTA funding — for the first time since the grant program’s creation — was motivated by a policy disagreement with city and state officials rather than any assessment of the risk of a terrorist incident in New York City’s subway system. Cutting funding based on a policy disagreement violates the statute authorizing the counterterrorism grant. The statute expressly provides that funds “shall” be distributed to public transit systems based solely on the risk of terrorism. The city’s subway system faces a higher risk of a terrorist attack than any other transit system in the country, and the DHS secretary is required to allocate part of the grant to the MTA.
The action comes on the heels of the federal government’s decision to reverse its $187 million reduction in public safety grants. As the brief notes, “the DHS secretary’s decision is even more unsupportable given that the secretary has reversed course on announced massive cuts to the state from a similar but separate grant —the Homeland Security Grant Program — which is also required to be distributed based on risk.”
Since the inception of the TGSP program, the NYPD has received close to $250 million in funding, which it has used to support vital counterterrorism initiatives in the subway system.
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