NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Governor Kathy Hochul announced Monday that the MTA will be installing surveillance cameras inside of the city’s 6,455 subway cars.
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"You think Big Brother's watching you on the subways? You're absolutely right,” Hochul said at a Queens press conference announcing the plan. “That is our intent to get the message out that we're going to be having surveillance of activities on the subway trains and that is going to give people great peace of mind"
The plan is an extension of a safety program already in place which brought 10,000 cameras to subway platforms and turnstiles while piloting the cameras inside of about 100 subway cars.
Funding for the installment of the cameras comes from the MTA Action Fund as well as through a $6 million grant from the Department of Homeland Security.
“I'm optimistic and I believe that these will also be a deterrent to people. You're gonna be caught if you conduct any activity, whether it's an aggressive act or whether it's a violent crime,” Hochul said. “And so I think that's going to go a long way to helping easing people's insecurities.”
The news comes as the NYPD announced crime in subways decreasing to below pre-pandemic levels, down 8.6% from 2019.
"A lot less crime [is] happening in transit than was happening pre-pandemic, and overall crime and transit [are] now down to 1.8% of all crime in the city," NYPD Chief of Department Kenneth Corey said.
Hochul also touted the decrease in subway crime, adding that more people are now commuting each day with subway crime decreasing 21% just since the summer started. She chalks up the improvement to several factors including more police presence and the idea that more riders means less crime.
“This is all part of our overall recovery as we're going forth,” Hochul said. “I know that the last two years have been extremely difficult. We're cognizant of that. And we're doing everything we can again to use the tools, the resources and the technologies that will change people's experience and start changing their anxiety about safety on our subways.”
MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber also recognized the push from transit workers to make the subway safer for riders and themselves, including getting legislation passed which makes sure that all transit workers were protected under the law of the state of New York.
“The transit workers are here and they're the ones who are going to work extra time long hours to do three to 400 subway car installations of these cameras per month, and they're going to be knocking them out in incredible rates,” Lieber said.
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