New York to install cameras in all cars on subway

New York City, home of the largest rapid transit system in the country, will install two surveillance cameras in every New York City subway car by 2025, a move to lure back people frightened by crime in the system, Governor Kathy Hochul said in announcing the multimillion-dollar surveillance program.

The governor said Tuesday that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will put two cameras in each of the city's 6,455 subway cars. Cameras have been installed in all 472 of the system's stations.

Subway ridership is stuck at about 60 percent of prepandemic levels with ridership affected following several highly publicized crimes that have occurred in the transit system.

The $5.5 million expansion was made possible with grant money from the federal government and the MTA's Subway Action Plan. The transit authority conducted a pilot program in 100 subway cars over the summer.

Subway car footage will be stored on a memory card on each camera, an MTA spokesperson said in an email, but will be available to any local, state or federal law enforcement agency for solving crimes. The MTA is still developing its procurement plan for which camera manufacturer it will use.

Privacy advocates say it will increase the level of surveillance of New Yorkers without necessarily making the subway safer. Subway stations in the city already have surveillance cameras.

"It's awful. This just seems like a terrible surveillance PR stunt just to boost ridership," said Albert Fox Cahn, the founder and executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP), a nonprofit aimed at reigning in digital surveillance in New York. "We have no idea how they would be sharing the data with federal and out-of-state partners," Fox Cahn said.

Said Hochul: "You think Big Brother's watching you on the subways? You're absolutely right. That is our intent, to get the message out that we are going to be having surveillance of activities on the subway trains and that is going to give people great peace of mind.

"You're going to be caught if you conduct any activity, whether it's an aggressive act or whether it's a violent crime," Hochul said at a news conference.

Hours before Hochul announced the camera program, a man was stabbed during a possible cell-phone robbery on a Brooklyn train, police said. The assailant fled; the victim got off the train and reported the incident and was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.