Surveillance State Rising – All New York City Subway Stations Now Have Security Cameras

(David Meyer | New York Post) – The MTA has finally installed security cameras at all 472 subway stations in the Big Apple, The Post has learned — and transit officials believe the surveillance surge is helping drive down subway crime.

The last of the around 2,000 cameras installed by the transit authority since December 2020 at “over 200 stations” went in on Saturday at the Broadway station on the G line, the MTA said.

The MTA’s arsenal is split 30-70 between cameras officials can access centrally in real-time and cameras that are “locally recorded.”

Previously, just 200 stations had been equipped with cameras, MTA Chief Safety Officer Pat Warren said in an interview.

“These cameras are not there to watch or invade in any way on the personal experience of our riders,” Warren said. “But if you are a criminal, and we know where a crime took place, we will be able to go to those recordings, find you, and deliver that image to the police so they can investigate.”

Warren said the extra cameras have proven essential for NYPD in capturing subway perps. While the rate of major felony crimes per million riders trended up from June and July to August, arrests by NYPD Transit cops jumped from 3,125 in July to 3,680 in August.

Arrest numbers for those months reflected significant increases from the same periods in 2020 — 16 and 29 percent.

“The number of arrests have dramatically increased. Part of that is directly attributable to cameras,” Warren told The Post. “You are not anonymous in the subway right now if you are out there trying to prey on our riders.” Read Full Article >