“I want every dollar that we spend or invest to be used to protect people. And so we want to make sure that if we fund it, it actually functions and the money goes to keeping people safe.”
So says Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, according to NPR. Swalwell is a member of the Homeland Security Committee who wants answers as to why security cameras malfunctioned during a recent mass shooting in a Brooklyn subway station.
Swalwell, a Democrat, co-signed a bipartisan Congressional letter to New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) wanting to know just how federal dollars meant to maintain the MTA’s security camera system are being spent.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Transit Security Grant Program has given the MTA around $50 million over the last two years.
Swalwell wants to the committee to pump more money into securing America’s public transit systems. But he also wants it to come with more transparency and accountability.
“We also have to make sure that people use the systems that we fund, and if they don't feel safe, then they're not going to use them,” Swalwell said. “And I don't want this to entirely fall on local, stretched police departments.”
MTA officials said the failure to capture images of the shooting was due to a failed internet connection, a problem they deemed to be rare, and that other cameras in the system worked properly to help locate and apprehend the offender.
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