Facial recognition technology is now formally off limits to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in its quest to recoup some of the hundreds of millions in unpaid fares each year.
Tucked into the newly-passed state budget is a provision stipulating that the MTA will “not use, or arrange for the use, of biometric identifying technology, including but not limited to facial recognition technology, to enforce rules relating to the payment of fares.”
Gothamist first reported the stipulation. Queens Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani told the online publication that he pushed for the budget language due to concerns that facial recognition “could invade upon people’s lives through expanded surveillance and through the criminalization of just existing within the public sphere.”
The brief measure promises big implications for the MTA’s efforts to enforce fare payment, which the authority recently ramped up with ticket blitzes on buses by the authority’s so-called EAGLE teams. Transit officials also hope increased fines for fare evasion recently approved by the Legislature, from $100 up to $200 depending on the number of offenses, will make people think twice before skipping out on paying the fare.
MTA officials say they have never utilized facial recognition technology on footage gathered by the thousands of cameras in the subway and on buses. But the NYPD, which draws on the MTA’s extensive network of cameras, has used facial recognition since 2011, city records show.
It is unclear if law enforcement is prohibited from utilizing facial recognition software on MTA footage. The NYPD did not immediately return a request for comment.
This summer the NYPD plans to test out metal detectors equipped with cameras, sensors and artificial intelligence in multiple subway stations to deter weapons from being brought into the subway. Mayor Eric Adams said during a March announcement of the effort that “we want to be clear: no facial recognition, no biometrics. No items will be used to hold your identification.”
Fare evasion cost the MTA an estimated $700 million across its networks in 2022. The issue has recently ballooned on city buses. In the fourth quarter of 2023, 46.1% of all bus riders did not pay the fare — a 8.9% rise from the same time in 2022 and a 16.1% jump compared to the same period in 2021, MTA data shows.
Caroline Spivack , 2024-04-29 19:07:41
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