DiNapoli: NYC Transit Must Ensure Cameras and Security Equipment Are Maintained and in Working Order

August 8, 2024

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority's New York City Transit (Transit) needs to do a better job of maintaining its security and safety equipment, including Closed-Circuit Televisions (CCTVs) in the subway system, to avoid future unexpected failures, an audit from State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli found.

"The MTA's security equipment is vital to riders' personal safety and critical to Transit and first responders during emergencies and incidents of crime," DiNapoli said. "The subway is an environment that demands CCTVs and other devices get inspected and maintained regularly. When security equipment fails it can have severe consequences."

MTA has taken steps to secure subway facilities, including train yards, with 30 different projects to install CCTVs and other electronic security systems that it considered a priority. The projects were part of the MTA's 2010-2014 and 2015-2019 capital programs. DiNapoli's audit found that four of the 30 projects were delayed because no one was available to do the work from Transit's pool of Small Business Mentoring Program contractors and no other vendor was assigned. Another five projects started late, including one that was to be done within the 2010-2014 capital program but did not start until 2021. As of May 2023, six of the 30 projects were completed after taking two to four years. Transit officials cited the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic as reasons for the delays.

Transit does preventative maintenance of security equipment-cleaning, testing and inspecting-to ensure it is working properly and to prevent failures. Auditors looked at a sample of 1,187 pieces of equipment and found that 14% had no maintenance scheduled as they should have. They also found that Transit had no documentation to show that maintenance was completed for 67% of the work that was scheduled, leaving equipment status uncertain. Transit officials said they changed the frequency of equipment maintenance because of staff reductions, and that the large increase in security equipment further reduced its ability to conduct preventative maintenance.

Transit prioritizes repairs based on how wide their impact is, their location and the severity of the problem. Auditors looked at 141 repair tickets and found Transit did not always make repairs within the time set by its own guidelines. Its response to the 141 tickets for repairs (Sept. 1, 2019 through July 21, 2022) were delayed, including one by two years. Transit categorizes reasons for delays, but the two most common explanations were "Reason not indicated" for 53 repairs and "Other" for 41 repairs.

In one instance, an order to repair a CCTV system was created on Oct. 5, 2020, assigned on June 23, 2021, and finally completed by Oct. 20, 2021, over a year later. CCTV equipment is supposed to be fixed in three days according to Transit officials.

A repair ticket for a Help Point Intercom opened on March 10, 2022 didn't get fixed until 17 days later, despite Transit's guideline of two days to resolve problems with these public safety devices.

Officials stated repairs were delayed due to a lack of maintainers and challenges in finding parts for obsolete cameras.

Transit uses a number of alarms, cameras and ID card readers to warn it if anyone enters a subway tunnel at the end of a platform without authorization so it can respond. There were 164,649 alarms over the six months from Aug. 8, 2022 to Feb. 7, 2023. Auditors looked at 80 alarms and found either no live videos were available or the cameras were not working when they visited.

DiNapoli's audit made 16 recommendations to the MTA and Transit, including that they review their pool of contractors to ensure they can meet the safety and security program's needs; document reasons why maintenance is not completed; make a daily list of inoperable cameras and alarms and track their repair; and ensure employees use their ID cards to enter and exit tunnels.

The MTA's full response is included in the audit report.

Audit
Metropolitan Transportation Authority - New York City Transit: Selected Aspects of Safety and Security in Subway Facilities