MTA Bus Fare Checkers To Return After Violent Confrontations With NYC Riders

NEW YORK CITY— The MTA plans to return its fare-checking teams to city buses, New York City Transit President Demetrius Crichlow said Monday.

The authority temporarily removed the teams from bus fare enforcement last week after surveillance footage showed members of its Evasion and Graffiti Lawlessness Eradication program, known as EAGLE, physically confronting passengers during fare checks.

The teams, staffed by many former police officers, are not armed and do not have peace officer status under state law. They can check whether passengers paid their fares and issue tickets to those who have not.

“It is not New York City Transit’s policy that our employees, any employees, should be getting physical with our customers,” Crichlow said Monday at an authority board meeting.

The authority is reviewing the teams’ training and investigating both incidents, according to NY Daily News.

In the meantime, members have shifted to other duties, including graffiti investigations, train yard inspections and patrols of transit facilities.

Why Does The MTA Want Fare Checkers Back?

The EAGLE teams have taken on a larger role in bus fare enforcement in recent years as the authority seeks to ensure passengers pay for rides.

Slightly more than half of the city’s bus riders pay their fares, according to authority data.

The authority has not announced a date for the teams’ return to buses.

Their resumption of fare checks depends on the ongoing review of their training and the investigations into the two confrontations.

A fare enforcement program remains necessary, Crichlow said, citing a 2023 panel report that recommended expanding enforcement by unarmed fare checkers.

“We’re committed to doing that, having the teams in place,” he said. “It can’t be like this. We have to do better.”

What Happened During The Two Confrontations?

In the more recent incident, four fare checkers were removed from duty after surveillance footage showed them pushing Kyle Taylor, a Brooklyn school aide, against a bus stop shelter in Brownsville.

Taylor had tried to push past the checkers as they inspected passengers’ proof of payment. He fell to the ground twice during the confrontation.

An earlier confrontation occurred Aug. 6 on a Bx39 bus near White Plains Road and Gun Hill Road in the Bronx.

A passenger became combative during a fare check and was escorted off the bus, but later returned and threatened the driver.

Surveillance footage from a nearby building, reviewed by the Daily News, shows the passenger and an EAGLE team member falling from the bus’s front door onto the street.

Two additional team members then follow them and attempt to pin the passenger to the ground.

The authority’s chairman, Janno Lieber, ordered the temporary suspension of bus fare checks last week after learning of the incident and a second confrontation in August.

Neither incident had been reported promptly to senior authority officials.

“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 Thursday, referring to the encounter with Taylor.

Three people reported feeling annoyed and alarmed by the passenger’s behavior, according to the New York Police Department.

The passenger had left before officers arrived. Police reported no injuries and made no arrests. A harassment complaint was filed against the passenger.