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Update: In an announcement on Tuesday, Governor Kathy Hochul said that all subway cars will have two cameras installed in them over the next several months.
That’s 6,455 cars that will be recording the comings and goings of commuters across the city.
“You think big brother is watching you on the subway? You’re right,” Hochul said. “I would behave as if you’re being watched because you are.”
MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber added that because of the number of cameras and their apparent clarity, breaking the law will have consequences.
“If you prey on New Yorkers or commit vandalism or damage MTA facilities, we’re going to have pictures of you and the NYPD is going to find you, capture you and punish you,” he said.
This is the perspective from the new MTA subway train cameras. Gov. Hochul says there will be 6,455 cars with 2 cameras installed on them, with "clarity." Some money coming from homeland security. pic.twitter.com/CETTJYbxDq
— Just your friendly neighborhood transit reporter (@s_nessen) September 20, 2022
Already, 200 subway cars have been outfitted with cameras and between 300 and 400 cameras will be installed per month until they all have two each. The program will cost $6 million and is being paid for via the state’s MTA fund and federal Homeland Security funds.
The MTA says it now has predictive technology that allows them to do maintenance on the cameras before they break down.
The camera installation is being done in hopes of further curtailing subway crime, which is down 21% since the start of the summer, according to the governor and transit officials.
Original: NYC’s subway trains are finally getting surveillance cameras as part of a new pilot the MTA launched in the wake of the April 12 shooting in Sunset Park.
The announcement is good news since, during that attack, there were no MTA cameras on the train and the platform cameras were not transmitting back to cops, which the NYPD says delayed its ability to catch the suspect, according to The New York Post.
Across the city, residents have also been expressing concern about their safety aboard the subway given this incident and others that have resulted in death and injury over the past year or so.
Under this pilot, 100 undercover cameras will be installed (65 have already been installed) with two in each car, according to the Post. And by undercover, we mean they cannot be seen by subway riders.
That being said, the MTA does want the public to know they’re there, according to MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber.
“What we want everybody to know is if you prey on New Yorkers, if you do something in the subway, we will get your picture, and you will be, we’ll find you, and the NYPD is going to arrest you,” he said Thursday on FOX 5’s Good Day New York. “And we’ve had success with 10,000 cameras in the system elsewhere. Now we’re adding it to the inside of subway cars.”
Eventually, signs will inform riders and would-be criminals that they are being watched, according to the Post. Unfortunately, the cameras can’t be monitored 100% of the time, but they will be used to pull evidence for crimes and other incidents.
Lieber issued a warning that sounds like something out of Taken:
“We’ve had incredible success using these cameras to collar the bad guys,” he continued. “We get great photos. You show them all the time, those Crimestoppers photos of people who did things, not just bad stuff in the subway, but people who escaped after doing things above ground. So, this is a huge crime deterrent. We want everybody to know: if you do something bad, if you attack a bus driver, if you prey on our riders, we’re going to find you, the NYPD will collar you.”