A video surveillance camera on the ceiling above a subway platform, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. The failure of security cameras in the New York subway station where a gunman opened fire this month is the subject of an investigation. — AP
The Inspector General for New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority has started investigating why the subway’s camera system failed to work at a Brooklyn station earlier this month where a gunman opened fire on a train.
The inquiry will examine the maintenance and repair programme for the equipment, Elizabeth Keating, the MTA’s acting inspector general, said in a statement Monday. The inspector general is an independent agency that serves as the MTA’s watchdog.
The investigation follows a letter that US House members sent to the MTA last week asking for more information on how the transit agency uses federal funds for safety initiatives. The MTA, a state agency, has received almost US$50mil (RM217.47mil) through the federal Transit Security Grant Programme in fiscal 2020 and 2021, according to the letter.
Safety needs to improve on New York City’s subways to help bring more riders back to the system, which carries a little more than three million weekday passengers, down from an average 5.5 million in 2019. There were 150 reported assaults in the first three months of this year, the most since at least 1997, according to MTA data.
The MTA in September finished installing cameras in all of its 472 subway stations to help decrease incidents as crime spiked during the pandemic. On average, 1% of the MTA’s cameras are going to be down for maintenance and other issues at any given time, Craig Cipriano, interim president of New York City Transit, which runs the MTA’s subways and buses, said Monday during an MTA committee meeting.
“We field many requests for video at the MTA from the NYPD every day that leads to the arrest and identification of hundreds of suspects, and I’m very pleased with that camera program,” Cipriano said. “It’s one of the most comprehensive camera coverages in our region.”
Police officers arrested Frank James in the attack, after he allegedly set off two smoke grenades before opening fire aboard a Manhattan-bound N train at the 36th Street station in Sunset Park during the morning commute on April 12, leaving at least 23 people injured, including 10 with gunshot wounds.
The MTA is reviewing Internet connectivity issues at three Brooklyn subway stations where video feed failed to transmit to the transit agency’s command center and the New York City Police Department.
Mayor Eric Adams said he wants the MTA to analyse its surveillance system to fix the malfunction at the subway stations. – Bloomberg
