New York to install security cameras on every subway car

Metropolitan Transport Authority plans to install two cameras in 6,355 subway cars

A video surveillance camera hangs from the ceiling above a subway platform in the Brooklyn borough of New York. AP

The Metropolitan Transport Authority is installing security cameras in all of New York City's subway cars, officials announced on Tuesday.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul said the cameras would make riders more confident in the safety of the transit system.

The plan is to install two cameras in each of the 6,355 subway cars, building on a pilot programme in which cameras were installed in 100 cars. The work should be completed by 2025, the agency said.

The agency is spending $3.5 million on the installation and the remaining $2m needed is through a grant from the US Department of Homeland Security's Urban Area Security Initiative.

There are already security cameras in the subway system's more than 470 stations, though they do not always work.

Tuesday's announcement came five months after a man started shooting passengers on a subway train in Brooklyn, striking 10 people in a highly unusual attack.

All survived their injuries, but the police search for the gunman was hampered by problems with the security cameras in the station.

An agency representative declined to say who made the cameras used in the pilot programme or whether the vendor would continue to be used in the expansion.

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  Police circulated images of Frank R James, 62, after the mass shooting in Brooklyn, New York. EPA

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  Emergency crews at the entrance to the 36th Street subway station in Brooklyn, after the rush-hour shooting on Tuesday. AP

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  Police and fire officials at the scene in New York. EPA

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  Several people were shot, with wounded commuters left bleeding on the platform. EPA

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  At least 13 people were injured. AP

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  Officers with dogs trained to sniff out explosives were among the police at the scene. AP

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  Sniffer dogs at the station. AP

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  Police and fire crews at the scene. EPA

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  The fire department said 13 people were injured, while police said at least five had been shot. AFP

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  Heavily armed police at the cordoned-off station. Getty

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  Onlookers stand behind the cordon. Getty

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  Rush-hour commuters were caught up in the incident. AFP

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  Bomb disposal experts arrive at the station. EPA

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  Emergency services vehicles outside the scene of the shooting. AP

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  Police and rescue workers crowd the street outside the station after the shooting. AFP

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  New York commuters wait for a subway train after the shooting. Reuters

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  A police officer and dog check a subway station in Manhattan after the Brooklyn incident. Reuters

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  Metropolitan Transportation Authority workers carry out checks in Manhattan. Reuters

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  Stations throughout the network were on alert. Reuters

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  Police and security officers on patrol at Manhattan's 42nd Street station. Reuters

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  Heavily armed police at the scene of the shooting in Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighbourhood. AFP

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  Emergency workers at the scene of the shooting. EPA

The New York Civil Liberties Union said the transport agency was being unduly secretive about surveillance and had given no information about how the camera data would be analysed and stored, and no evidence that expanding the use of cameras improves safety.

“Living in a sweeping surveillance state shouldn't be the price we pay to be safe,” Daniel Schwarz, an NYCLU technology and privacy strategist, said in a statement.

Ridership on the subway plummeted after the Covid-19 pandemic spread through the US in 2020, but has been gradually rebuilding to about 3.7 million rides on a typical weekday.

There have been more than 390 robberies on the subway so far this year, compared to more than 320 in the same period in 2019, police data show.

Danny Pearlstein, a spokesman for the transit advocacy group Riders Alliance, said there were more pressing areas of investment.

“Ultimately, the governor should also make a targeted investment in more frequent public transit service to cut platform wait times and attract more people to the system, creating safety in numbers,” he wrote in an email.