File #: Res 0390-2004    Version: * Name: MTA and NYC Transit and the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority to install cameras on all its buses.
Type: Resolution Status: Filed
Committee: Committee on Transportation
On agenda: 6/7/2004
Enactment date: Law number:
Title: Resolution calling upon the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and New York City Transit and the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority to install cameras on all its buses.
Sponsors: Maria Baez, Helen D. Foster, Margarita Lopez
Council Member Sponsors: 3

Res No. 390

Resolution calling upon the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and New York City Transit and the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority to install cameras on all its buses.

 

By Council Members Baez, Foster and Lopez

Whereas, Technology can be utilized to enhance public safety,  reduce and deter criminality, and discourage false complaints against the City of New York; and

Whereas, Terrorism has become a more serious threat since the September 11 tragedy with growing concerns that New York City’s public transportation system is a prime target; and

Whereas, The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has enhanced security measures since September 11, 2001, and since the Madrid bombing in March 2004, have installed more surveillance cameras in subway stations and tunnels; and  

Whereas, The Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a Homeland Security bulletin in April 2004 to police departments around the United States warning that terrorists might try to bomb rail lines and buses this summer; and 

Whereas, The bulletin states that transit officials can improve security on trains and buses by reviewing security camera footage each day for signs of terrorist surveillance; and   

Whereas, While installing cameras on city buses can improve tracking of terrorist activities on these vehicles, the cameras can also serve to monitor and deter daily municipal problems such as assault, harassment, vandalism and false “slip and fall” incidents inside and outside the buses; and

Whereas, Several transportation authorities in other municipalities have installed cameras in buses including in New Orleans, Louisiana, where officials have used video evidence to help convict people on an array of gun, theft and fraud charges; and

Whereas, Other municipalities with cameras in buses include Minneapolis, Minnesota,  San Francisco and Sacramento, California,  Charlotte, North Carolina, Seattle, Washington, Burlington, Vermont, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and  Southbend, Indiana, the last three of which have installed cameras in school buses; and

Whereas, These cameras can be installed on bus ceilings and directly behind the driver to send out a radio signal that a police officer can intercept with a modified laptop and monitor the activities of the bus in “real time” or download the information to review later; and

Whereas, Currently neither the MTA, New York City Transit, nor the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority has installed any cameras in New York City buses, but has reportedly been in discussions with a French-based company that is outfitting Paris-area buses with surveillance equipment, now, therefore, be it

Resolved, that the Council of the City of New York calls upon the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, New York City Transit, and the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Surface Transit Operating Authority to install cameras on all its buses.

 

RR; LS 754; 6/01/04