Details of Cuomo’s plan to ban sex offenders from subway remain unclear

Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants to ban repeat sex offenders from the MTA’s subway and bus system. Eagle file photo by Jonathan Sperling.

By Jonathan Sperling

Days after Gov. Andrew Cuomo called on the Metropolitan Transit Authority Board to impose a lifetime subway and bus ban on anyone who commits a sex offense, the details of the governor’s plans remain unclear.

Cuomo called for the ban after the NYPD arrested Santiago Gonzalez, 71, for allegedly trying to take cash out of a subway rider’s front pocket on the Lexington Avenue line in Manhattan. Gonzalez is reportedly a repeat sex offender and has been arrested 24 times within the transit system, the New York Post reported.

In direct response to Gonzalez’s arrest, Cuomo issued a statement “calling on the MTA Board to end the repeated victimization of riders on our subways and buses and enact a lifetime ban on any individual who engages in such abhorrent behavior.”

“The definition of insanity would be to allow this conduct to continue unabated and somehow expect our transit system to improve,” Cuomo said, adding that the NYPD would be right to seek the ban.

But when asked by the Eagle for details regarding the ban’s enforcement, Cuomo’s office was slow to respond. A spokesperson reached by phone directed questions about the proposed ban to an email address.

However, questions related to how such a ban would be enforced, how subway/bus sex offenders would be identified by the MTA, and how sex offenders would be physically barred from entering the subway/buses remained unanswered as of press time Monday. Questions regarding the ban’s extension to the Long Island Rail Road, Metro North and Staten Island Ferry were also unanswered.

This isn’t the first instance where Cuomo has suggested banning repeat sex offenders from city transit. In March, he stated at an Albany news conference that any individual with two or more subway-related sexual assault convictions should be banned from the system. Cuomo did not discuss the details of the ban at that time, either.

Other U.S. states have banned sex offenders from transit. Earlier this year, a Los Angeles man was banned from the city’s public transportation system after being convicted of groping girls and women onboard public transportation lines on 10 occasions.

Sex crimes remain on the rise across New York City, with 3,609 sex crimes reported between the start of this year and Sept. 1, 2019, according to NYPD data. That’s approximately a 7.3 percent increase compared to the 3,365 sex crimes reported during the same period in 2018.