MTA Security Camera Plan Leaves Out 75% of Stations

Courtesy Atomische's Flickr.

After last week’s fatal subway stabbings, city dwellers were shocked no footage had been captured of the suspects. But even as the MTA ramps up its security, only about 1 in 4 turnstile banks will have a camera trained on it, reports the Daily News. An MTA spokesman said there just aren’t funds for more. "Our focus is on completing the work that is underway in the priority areas identified with NYPD. We'll use the same process moving forward, doing as much as we can with the funding we have," said Jeremy Soffin.

So far 70 stations are rigged with the cameras, and by June that number is expected to reach 100. The agency asked that $250 million be set aside for security projects over the next five years, but Albany—where Gov. Paterson is hashing out a budget for the upcoming year—rejected the proposal. Bridge tolls, which would have paid for subway surveillance in addition to other improvements to the MTA, were voted down by the legislature. With things as they are the administration warned earlier this year that the planned security overhaul "may never be completed."

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By Sabrina Jaszi in News on April 4, 2010 12:40 PM

Comments [rss]

JacqueMehoff

did they catch that Times Square ten speed bomber yet?

jaycjay

"city dwellers were shocked no footage had been captured of the suspects."

We were? Maybe a handful of recent arrivals were, but most people know that there's only scattered coverage in the subway system.

PKinNYC

that's just where they get on to bring their dirty bomb into the city. By the time they get into Manhattan and detonate it won't matter if there are thousands of cameras. Security theatre does not keep us safe.

Darrell

Fun Fact: Dirty Bombs have never worked and is in fact a theoretical weapon that no government has ever gotten to work, just like suitcase nukes. The best part is that they trotted out this dirty bomb nonsense an installed "nuclear material detectors" onto a bunch of random vans because apparently Al Queda has nuclear physicists on its team (bullshit). You know that for a Dirty Bomb to kill someone outside of the initial explosion they'd have to stand still for decades for the radiation to poison them?

Its like when they said that Al Queda had a secret high tech underground labyrinth base powered by hydroelectricity in some mountain in Afghanistan, and people really believed that shit.

Smitty025

You may be right about most of the dirty bomb business, but the various Al Qaeda groups have many extremely well educated people working for them with degrees in engineering and science.

Smitty025

I don't mean to imply that they have the resources to actually develop a nuclear weapon or anything, but it's quite possible there are nuclear physicists in some of the groups.

Darrell

I know the headline is trying to provoke rage, but really, who's going to attack a station like New Lots Ave in Brooklyn? Not like the security cameras would actually stop the terrorist, but that's another matter entirely.

inoyourider

It might help identify criminals and thereby reduce the amount of crime in the subway.

Darrell

But then you might as well put up cameras on every street as well since they would be able to identify criminals, and we certainly won't do that for both privacy and cost reasons. Its not like someone is actually going to be watching all of those cameras all the time anyway, so at best the footage could be used to give cops leads after the crime, but I doubt putting up a camera would make people not get stabbed or robbed on the subway.

inoyourider

There are camera on many streets which do get used to apprehend criminals.

It doesn't matter if someone is watching them all the time.

Putting up a camera won't stop crime, but when criminals begin getting sentenced to jail as a result of these cameras, that WILL deter crime.

Darrell

Maybe in the beginning, but those cameras could easily be disabled (throwing rocks at the camera lens, clipping its wires, etc), and the cost v. reward of constantly fixing those down units wouldn't be worth it, especially for a department on a tight budget. Never the less, it only treats the symptoms of a crime spike, but not the causes, and if desperate people continue to be in the same position, they'll turn to crime no matter the status of police vigilance.