All fare enforcement teams will be pulled off of city buses until the MTA can investigate two allegations of improper use of force, MTA Chairman Janno Lieber said Thursday.
“I’m not willing to keep our teams in the filed until I know that all protocols are being followed,” Lieber said, reading from a prepared statement at an unrelated press conference. “I’m ordering an immediate safety stand-down until these investigations conclude.”
As previously reported by the Daily News, the MTA had already removed four members of the agency’s Evasion and Graffiti Lawlessness Eradication (EAGLE) from the street following a violent fare-check in Brownsville earlier this month.
In that incident, surveillance footage — first reported by the Daily News — showed the fare-checkers pushing Brooklyn school aide Kyle Taylor up against a bus stop shelter following a fare dispute that had turned physical.
Taylor fell to the ground twice during the altercation, at one point hitting his head on the bus shelter bench.
A week later, after multiple media outlets asked the MTA about the incident, the four were put on modified duty pending an investigation into the incident.
Lieber said Thursday that another, earlier incident had since come to light, leading him to temporarily suspend all EAGLE team operations.
“I was not happy that leadership of the MTA and New York City Transit didn’t even hear about that episode until more than a week afterward,” Lieber said. “It now appears that there is another episode where that failure to timely report is even more extreme — the incident that’s come to attention is now several months old.”
“Riders deserve complete confidence that our fare enforcement is fair and courteous,” he said. “Our EAGLE teams won’t be re-entering the field until I am confident that their training — and their reporting and investigation protocols — meet our high standards.”
The MTA did not provide any further information on the earlier EAGLE team incident.
Lieber said the MTA’s head of security — former NYPD Transit Chief Michael Kemper — would be heading up an internal investigation into the EAGLE teams.
The news was welcomed by transit advocates at Riders Alliance.
“Bus riders know firsthand the failings of EAGLE team fare enforcement and we commend MTA leadership for today’s decision,” Betsy Plum, the group’s director, said in a statement. “Aggressive tactics that hurt people and slow down the bus cannot meet New Yorkers’ needs or address public transit’s persistent fiscal challenges.”
The unarmed EAGLE teams have been tasked in recent years with cracking down on fare evasion on the MTA’s bus network. While EAGLE team members are allowed to issue tickets for fare evasion, they are not members of the MTA’s police department, nor are they recognized by the state as peace officers.
The MTA estimates that roughly 49% of city bus riders do not pay their fare.