NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- The MTA’s watchdog launched an investigation into the camera failure during this month's mass shooting at a Sunset Park subway station.
Acting MTA Inspector General Elizabeth Keating announced the probe Monday, about two weeks after the shooting on an N train at the 36th Street station left 10 people with gunshot wounds and 19 more with other injuries. A suspect, Frank R. James, was arrested in the East Village the following day.
“As the horrific mass shooting two weeks ago in Sunset Park has raised questions about the MTA camera system, the Office of the Inspector General has initiated an inquiry into why the cameras were not transmitting on April 12 and a review of the maintenance and repair program for the critical equipment,” Keating said in a statement announcing the probe.
Keating continued: “The work will encompass relevant allegations and concerns that are within the scope of the OIG’s jurisdiction as the independent agency statutorily charged with MTA oversight.”
About 10,000 cameras dot every one of the city’s 472 subway stations. However, on April 12 there was a technical issue at the 36th Street station as well as at the two closest stations in Sunset Park.
MTA Chair Janno Lieber said last week that the cameras themselves were working and that it was “the internet connection that apparently had failed.”
“Without getting too technical, there’s a node that carries that internet connection for those stations that had failed,” Lieber said.
The MTA and NYPD have been adamant that the failure did not hinder their search for the suspected gunman, who was captured after a 29-hour manhunt.
“It did not hamper the investigation,” Lieber said, noting that there are 600 cameras on the N line in Brooklyn and that 36 separate camera feeds were given to police to help nab the suspect. “On many of those, we had several images of the suspect,” Lieber said.
Members of Congress still want answers. Last week, Bronx Rep. Ritchie Torres, who is vice chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, led a bipartisan letter to the MTA asking how much the agency spends on its cameras and how it cares for them.
Lieber welcomed the letter, which mentions more federal dollars for transit safety.
In recent years the MTA has gotten $50 million in federal money for transit safety upgrades.
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