So far 2016 has seen an uptick in subway slashings, with at least 13 reported incidents to date as of last week. The NYPD insists that there's no pattern—but pattern or not, the NYPD is significantly increasing its presence in the subway and will begin making routine checks of trains as they're stopped in stations.

When conducting checks, teams of up to eight officers will spread themselves out along a platform. As the train comes into the station, the conductor will announce that there will be a momentary delay for police activity. While the train is stopped, the officers will enter the cars, look around, and exit.

Discussing the new initiative at a press conference yesterday, officials were adamant that this won't cause delays.

"If the train isn't crowded, the officer just pops his or her head in and it doesn't affect the movement of the train at all," said NYPD Transit Chief Joseph Fox. "If the train's crowded, the officers will put themselves in a position where people can come out and they get in and they're visible. So the delay would be a second or two, if anything."

It remains to be seen how officers will perform a thorough scan of a crowded train car in mere seconds, or how this might curb the slashings that the NYPD and Mayor Bill de Blasio insist are not a trend—but it seems that might not be the point.

"Not only do we have to keep people safe, we have to make sure they feel safe, and by people seeing uniform cops in the system, they feel safe," said NYPD Chief of Department James O'Neill.

Good luck "stepping on" on any rush-hour trains.



More like "Passively-aggressively squeeze in, squeeze out". https://t.co/8WGaH3karm — Jeremy Wilcox (@jwilcox79) March 2, 2016

The new measures come a week after the MTA voted to create a new unit tasked with identifying and tracking repeat subway criminals in the hopes of keeping them out of the transit system. That vote reportedly took place after Chief Fox presented statistics showing that felonious assault (which includes slashings) was up 20% in January, more than any other crime.

At the press conference, Chief Fox said that February saw a slight decrease in subway crime from January, dropping from 6.7 crimes per day to 6.2 crimes per day, but said that those numbers are still higher than last year's. Chief O'Neill also noted that 65% of subway crime is grand larceny, and that most of the slashing victims have not been chosen at random.

This initiative will not assign an officer to each train at night, despite earlier reports. However, the NYPD will further increase its presence by increasing the number of officers assigned to the Times Square station to 60; sending response teams on train rides after briefing them on currently wanted criminals; and sending officers from the department's strategic response group, criminal response command, and counterintelligence teams down to train stations during their patrols, particularly at night—all in an effort to bolster straphangers' sense of safety, as officials emphasized repeatedly.

"New Yorkers want to be safe, they want to feel safe, and the presence of NYPD officers is incredibly reassuring," de Blasio told reporters. "So I don't think anyone is concerned about any minor delays, and I don't think there will be delays, but number one, people want to be safe and they like seeing the presence of the NYPD on the subways."