It’s time for a little Friday afternoon catch-up. I’ve had this tab open all week, and no time to slot it in, but here we go: According to federal prosecutors, Al Qaeda was responsible for organizing the plot against the New York City subways that the FBI stopped in September. It’s not much of a surprise to hear that the subways are on the terrorist organization’s radar, but as I’ve said in the past, that the plot was stopped before it could be carried out is a testament to the nation’s increased attention to the severity of these plots. The cameras the MTA is working to fix are an important part of a security system, but law enforcement efforts that uncover plots before they can unfold are what is truly keeping us safe.
There’s no need for a key to unlock this door. (Photo by flickr user rlboston)
Over the weekend, Pete Donohue of the Daily News wrote about a creative form of fare-beating. Donohue found that every emergency exit door can be unlocked by using the same key, and he discovered that some Transit workers have sold copies of those keys for $27. It’s a pretty outrageous abuse of power, and as one might imagine, the MTA and NYPD are on the case.
Donohue has more:
The Daily News tried out the key at 15 stations across the city, including Yankee Stadium on the B line in the Bronx, Junction Blvd. on the No. 7 in Queens and 68 St. on the Lexington Ave. line. It worked every time…
Cops confiscated 33 gate keys from perps arrested last year for illegally selling trips or other offenses, according to NYPD spokesman Detective William Winning. So far this year, police have arrested 15 suspects with subway gate keys, Winning said.
But the low-level thieves, knowing arrests and brief jail stints are inevitable, plan ahead by stashing away extra keys and starting up their scam all over again. “They all have copies on standby so if they get locked up, when they come back out on the street, they’re still able to make money,” said the Brooklyn man who had a copy. “It’s their bread and butter.”
On Sunday, the News followed up by asking the person-on-the-street and a few outraged politicians their thoughts on the development. Lo, and behold, the story became about terrorism and security breaches. “This could be a major security problem if these keys get into the wrong hands,” James Vacca, head of the City Council’s transportation committee, said.
Councilman Peter Vallone seemed willing to do away with due process over this issue. “This is a serious security breach,” he said. “We know terrorists are planning to attack our subways, and the MTA and NYPD better find these magical morons quickly, and then make them disappear for a year in jail.”
Others blamed those with the audacity to sell the key. “It’s not safe at all,” Mary Ettienne, a Brooklyn resident, said to the News. “They don’t know what kind of people that are buying the key. They’re putting people’s lives in danger.”
But is this theft of fare really a terrorism security issue? It’s possible but exceedingly unlikely that some petty crooks who work for the MTA could wind up selling a key to a terrorist, but it’s far more likely for a terrorist to simply swipe into the system without violating yet another law or raising eyebrows with an illegal transaction to acquire a key. Vallone may be appealing to populist fears over a subway attack, but his comments are divorced from reality. Why would a terrorist go through the trouble of buying a key when the subways are porous as they already are?
The more alarming news here is that Transit employees are selling the keys. Barry Kluger, the MTA’s Inspector General, plans to investigate, and when he finds those responsible, they should — and will — be fired immediately. That’s the bigger story here.
In this April 1, 2010 photo, NYPD transit officer Robert McMillan watches the subway tunnel on video monitors from the Omega booth at the Borough Hall station in the borough of Brooklyn, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
As details have emerged about the planned attack on the New York City subway led by Najibullah Zazi, I haven’t focused too closely on the story. For one, few people like to be reminded of the dangers we face everyday as we ride a very porous subway system. For another, although the FBI stopped this potential terrorist attack four days before it was set to be put in motion, law enforcement had the situation under control for months. We can’t let fear rule our lives when governmental agencies are doing their jobs properly.
The story, generally, is this: Zazi, a legal permanent resident of the United States, had trained with al-Qaeda for a while in Pakistan. While there, he had met a few other United States natives, and he and his followers had put in motion a plan to attack the New York City subways. This week, details of the plans emerged in the Daily News, and they are chilling:
Zazi and his two Queens friends allegedly planned to strap explosives to their bodies and split up, heading for the Grand Central and Times Square stations – the two busiest subway stations in New York City.
They would board trains on the 1, 2, 3 and 6 lines at rush hour and planned to position themselves in the middle of the packed trains to ensure the maximum carnage when they blew themselves up, sources said.
During Zazi’s brief visit to Queens from his home in Denver last September, he rode the subway multiple times to the Grand Central and Wall St. stations, scouting where to best spread death and mayhem, the sources said.
Terrorist experts estimated that these attacks would have been more deadly than any of the previous train bombings, and it’s hard to guess how damage along the IRT lines would have impacted the oldest tunnels in the city. Yet, despite these fears, Scotland Yard question the limitations of underground surveillance cameras, the public perception is one of risk. We hope today isn’t the day someone detonates a bomb in the subways.
In a more comforting look at security underground, though, the AP explored how the NYPD is pursuing a counterterrorism strategy when it comes to the subways. The AP notes that the NYPD uses “bomb-sniffing dogs, high-tech explosive detection devices and security cameras” as well as good old fashioned manpower in booths that sit in stations next to the various tunnels that cross from Manhattan to the outer boroughs.
Still, the Zazi story makes me believe that maybe the NYPD isn’t doing as much it could. According to a few sources, Zazi and his co-conspirators would have taken their explosives in backpacks. Perhaps, the NYPD back checks should be reconsidered. Perhaps it’s just impossible to stop someone determined enough to attack a vast and open subway system.
In a way, much of our subway security is based upon hope. We hope a terrorist slips up. We hope the FBI or Homeland Security is paying attention to the right warning signs. We hope no one is asleep at the proverbial wheel. It might be the most comforting thought, but at times, it’s all we have.
Since the stabbing that left two people dead on a downtown 2 train nearly two weeks ago, much has been written about the MTA’s inadequate surveillance camera system. We know that the MTA and Lockheed Martin are in a legal battle over a system that hasn’t been implemented properly, and we’ve explored the benefits and limitations of subway security cameras. Today, amNew York has an interesting take on the situation. According to a Heather Haddon piece, the MTA’s in-house solution has worked much better than any outsourced plan.
Haddon discusses the two approaches and the economics behind it:
While hundreds of high-tech cameras that cost the MTA $20 million are broken, cheaper models installed a few years back are doing their job pretty well, amNewYork has learned. The simpler cameras, costing roughly half as much as the high-tech models that were contracted out, took about six months to install and have been used by police dozens of times to catch bank robbers and other criminals, elected officials say…
In 2006, the MTA signed a $20 million contract to install 900 high-tech cameras in 32 stations, including 14 in Manhattan. Those cameras were supposed to start rolling in 2008, but a key contractor went belly up that year, delaying the project, MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz confirmed. “Since that time, the MTA … has continued to work to get the cameras online and all the locations will be fully operational by June of this year,” Ortiz said…
But the simpler system designed and maintained in-house has been nabbing criminals for years. In 2005, Assemb. Dov Hikind, (D-Brooklyn), allocated $1.2 million to get 120 closed-circuit cameras up in nine borough stations on the D, R and N lines. The system features $400 Panasonic closed circuit cameras on the platforms, mezzanines and stairways, capturing more angles than the other MTA devices, which point at entrances and turnstiles, union officials say. The recording device costs about $15,000 at each station.
If my math is correct, the MTA is paying $20 million to install cameras that, if developed in-house, would cost approximately $840,000 (32 stations at $15,000 a piece and 900 cameras at $400 each). I don’t have the details about the system developed with Lockheed, and I have to imagine it included some sensitive security measures that extended beyond just video surveillance. But I have to wonder too if, sometimes, the MTA is just trying too hard. If the in-house solution works and is cheaper, why throw out the baby with the bathwater?
Following last Sunday’s 2 train murder that left two men dead and another wounded, police have charged three men with murder. According to the NYPD, Brenddy Garcia, Franklin Varella and Diogenes Hernandez will be charged with second-degree murder, and Garcia will face a charge of criminal possession of a weapon. Although initial investigations were hampered by a lack of security cameras, the police were able to track down suspects based on witness statements. Originally, news outlets reported the murder as an unprovoked attack brought on when an errant bag of garbage tossed from the train car hit the alleged killer in the chest. Today, though, NY1 reports that the two groups of young men were provoking each other before the stabbings occurred. Color me unsurprised.
Update (3:52 p.m.): According to a recent WNYC report, two of the three suspects were let go. Varella and Hernandez will not, according to sources, be charged due to “a lack of evidence.” Manhattan DA Cy Vance has charged Brenddy Garcia with second-degree murder, but Garcia says he acted in self-defense after getting struck in the hit with an empty beer bottle.
Unfortunately for the MTA, this Sunday’s 2 train stabbings led to a renewed focus on the authority’s plan to eliminate station agents. Although the actual murder took place aboard the 2 train in between 14th and Christopher Sts., some of the perps escaped via the southbound platform at Christopher St. while the others left at Houston, and both of those platforms are currently without station agents. Today, in the Daily News, Pete Donohue and Barry Paddock ask if station agents could have helped the solve the crime.
The answer to that question is both yes and no. As with the cameras I explored this morning, a station agent who happened to see the allegedly killers exit the station would have been able to provide a description to the police. Yet, we shouldn’t think that the station agent would have stopped this crime. The stabbings occurred on a train well out of sight from any MTA employee, and this seemingly heat-of-passion killing seems to have been nearly unavoidable. When we consider as well that station agents are not allowed to leave their booths, the best we could hope for is a more accurate description of the still-at-large killers. How to balance those surveillance needs with the MTA’s budgetary woes is a problem facing the authority right now.
Over the last few months, we’ve heard a lot about the MTA’s efforts at securing its system. A ongoing lawsuit against Lockheed Martin has left the current state of subway security in disarray, and approximately half of the system’s 4300 cameras do not work properly. Had everything gone according to plan, by now, the entire subway system would have been outfitted with closed-circuit security cameras.
Generally, this halting attempt at installing cameras doesn’t impact the public. We’ll ride the trains no matter what and hope for the best. But this weekend, two stories highlight both the benefits and limitations of subway security cameras. The first happened right here in New York when a stabbing on Sunday morning left two riders dead and the cops on the hunt for a killer. The NYPD’s efforts have been slowed by the lack of adequate security measures underground.
As Ray Rivera and Michael Grynbaum write in The Times today, Christopher St. — the station through which the alleged perp escaped — has no cameras, and overall, the system’s video surveillance system “remains a patchwork of lifeless cameras, unequipped stations and problem-plagued wiring.”
MTA and New York City officials are aware of the system’s shortcomings. “This definitely should have been recorded on surveillance camera,” Norman Seabrook, head of the MTA’s security committee, said to The Times “Post-9/11, the terrorist bombings that just occurred in Moscow, the two murders that just occurred plus other incidents that continue to occur in the subway system, we cannot wait any longer to ensure the safety of the public.”
Yet, the Moscow bombings, despite Seabrook’s concern, highlight just how useless security cameras can be. During the Monday morning rush hour, two suicide bombers detonated explosives in the Moscow Metro. The bombers are suspected to be a part of some Northern Caucasus separatist groups, and the blasts raised fears through Russia and the rest of the world.
In New York, the NYPD rushed to “activate” a security plan, Reuters reported on Monday. Police details flooded the subway system, and squads were dispatched to major transit hubs around the city. Although there was no suspected link between America’s enemies and the Russian attackers, the city wanted to maintain a strong security footing. It was, MTA spokesman Jeremy Soffin said to amNew York, a “precaution.”
Yet, I wonder if this response is more an example of wishful thinking and the limitations we run up against in defending an open and porous subway system than it is of precaution. By dispatching police after the fact, it is as though security officials are trying to close the barn door after the horse escaped. As former NYPD commissioner Howard Safir said to Heather Haddon, “There are so many entrances, so many stations, so many people. It’s virtually impossible to guarantee that it won’t be vulnerable.”
So where then does that leave New Yorkers on a daily basis? On the one hand, a killer is still at large because he was able to slip out of an unsecured subway system after stabbing two or three men on a subway train car that is surveillance-free. On the other, we are aware of the security risks we face as we ride the trains and now that, while exceedingly rare, a terrorist attack underground can be a devastating and tragic event. As station agents vanish and security dollars languish, the MTA must do what it can to guard against both kinds of subway attacks.
As Saturday night turned into Sunday morning, two men were fatally stabbed on a Brooklyn-bound 2 train. What happened on the train remains something of a mystery, but as more information comes to light, the tale is a particularly grisly one.
I first saw the news in The Times on Sunday morning when it was nothing more than a short report from the Associated Press. By the evening, their reporting had turned into a longer story with some details. Two groups of young men boarded the Brooklyn-bound 2 train making local stops. The first got on at 42nd St; the second got off later.
Somewhere in between 14th St. and Christopher St., Darnell Morel and Ricardo Williams were stabbed multiple times, and police stopped the train at Houston St. The assailants fled, and the two victims were both pronounced dead on arrival at St. Vincent. A third stabbing victim, says the report, remains in stable condition at the hospital.
The Daily News and The Post provided different takes on the story with the help of the victims’ friends. Apparently, ten friends were on the way back from a night out at the Cellar Bar in the Bryant Park Hotel. At 14th St., one of the group threw a bag of garbage out of the train car and hit another passenger on the platform. He and his three friends got agitated and pulled a knife. As the group tried to calm down the potential assailant, Morel and Williams were stabbed. “When we left, he stood banging on the glass with the knife in his hand,” Bryan Woods, a friend of the two victims, said to The Daily News. “[He was] laughing like he knew he got one of us.”
Cops are still looking for alleged attackers and are trying to piece together a more complete story. Both Morel and Williams, reported The Times, had arrest records. For the papers, this is a story of the city’s increased homicide rate. The subways, relatively crime-free for years, haven’t seen a spike in petty crime, but across the city, the murder rate has been climbing. Is it, as some bemoan, a return to the 1980s? “I feel like the city is losing its grip,” Liz McCarvill, a West Village resident, said to The Post. “I have to take the subway at 4:30 in the morning to get to the airport. It’ll be me and the people who kill each other.”
That is, I think, an overstatement borne out of fear when someone is attacked and murdered on your train. I ride the 2 train regularly, and I knkow McCarvill’s concerns. Still, what happened yesterday morning is similar to the murder that took place on the D train in November. There, one rider refused to remove his bags from a seat for another rider, and that other rider killed his co-straphanger over a seat. The lessons I offered up in November served as a reminder to be wary of those around you on the train. Most New Yorkers are calm and collected; they won’t snap at an obvious mistake. But the one guy out of 100 who does can mean harm.
I want to know more about this garbage bag that was tossed from a train and the reaction of the alleged killers to that bag. The subways and streets of new york City are safe, but sometimes safety can lead to complacency. A tragedy on the 2 train yesterday didn’t need to happen.
As part of its service cuts, the MTA is eliminating over 600 station agents throughout the system. While the authority will have at least one agent at every station at all times, the 2400 agents will be stretched thin, and numerous stops — such as those that are one way only and do not feature an in-system crossover — will be with the bare minimum of agent eyes.
Over the last few months, as these cuts have come into focus, the debate has often centered around the usefulness of the station agents, and today, the Daily News sheds some light on the issue. Station agents, reports Pete Donohue, have placed over 500,000 emergency calls over the last three years. That’s a lot, right?
Well, let’s do some math. In 2009, agents placed 150,624 calls. Some of those, notes Donohue, are follow-up calls to let dispatch know that the problem has been resolved. But we can assume that’s the base number. With 365 days in the year, that averages out to 412 calls per day. There are 422 subway stations throughout the system. So on average each station is reporting slightly less than one emergency per day.
With seven million straphangers passing through the MTA’s turnstiles each day, those 412 phone calls seem rather de minimus. Furthermore, the station agents won’t be entirely eliminated. There will still be 2400 agents staffing the system, and each station, as I said above, will be staffed at all hours. A few people might feel less safe; a few people might be more inconvenienced. I can’t help but think, however, that the concerns about safety expressed by rider advocates are more than a little overblown.
An artistic station agent drew the sign above. It was photographed by flickr user bitchcakesny.
An MTA security camera hangs above the BMT platform at 59th St. and Lexington Ave. (Photo by flickr user Vidiot)
Next week, the MTA Board will vote to approve a sweeping package of service cuts in an effort to close a budget gap hundreds of millions of dollars wide. Amongst those cuts are the planned elimination of 620 station agents. While layoff notices have already gone out to these employees and the cuts will leave stations with the fewest number of staffers in decades, politicians are voicing their concerns about the MTA’s willingness to sacrifice station security in a post-Sept. 11 era.
In fact, just last week, three high-ranking House representatives who overseen homeland security matters sent MTA CEO and Chairman Jay Walder a letter urging him to reconsider the station agent cuts. “Although our domestic transit systems have thus far been spared, deadly terrorist attacks in Spain, Great Britain, India and Russia over the last few years have emphasized the vulnerabilities of public transportation in large urban areas and demonstrated the security challenges unique to these open, passenger-heavy systems,” the letter said. It continued, “These cuts may create gaps in the layered infrastructure of local stations. A human presence is important for securing an open transit environment.”
The letter’s authors make it tough to ignore their message. It came from Bernie G. Thompson, chair of the House Homeland Security Committee and co-signed by Sheila Jackson Lee, chair of the transportation security subcommittee, and Brooklyn’s own Yvette Clark, chair of the subcommittee on emerging threats, and the three noted that the recent guilty plea by Najibullah Zazi thrust domestic terrorism concerns back into the spotlight, a point made last month on one of my recent appearances on the WCBS local news. “The case of Najibullah Zazi is a chilling reminder that our transit systems are targets of Al Qaeda and its affiliates,” they wrote.
For its part, the MTA defended both the planned cuts and the current state of subway security. “The subway system is the safest it’s been in years, thanks to the vigilance and dedication of the N.Y.P.D.,” agency spokesman Aaron Donovan said. “There will continue to be a strong presence of M.T.A. employees throughout the subway system.”
Yet, another story about the MTA’s security cameras betrays the authority’s assurances. According to a report in today’s amNew York, half of the subway system’s 4313 security cameras aren’t working properly. According to Heather Haddon, these cameras “are unable to power up or are suffering from software glitches.”
In the past decade, the MTA has installed cameras across the system at subway turnstiles, platforms and tunnels to combat crime and fare beating. But of the 2,000 cameras that only records footage and are placed around the turnstiles, nearly half aren’t working because they were never fully rigged, MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz said…
Another 1,100 cameras located throughout the system that would send live feeds and allow officials to monitor activity in real time are not working because of a software glitch, Ortiz said. The MTA is in a legal dispute with the contractor, Lockheed Martin, but the agency is working with another contractor to make them live. Ortiz couldn’t say when the work will be finished.
Considering that the MTA just added closed-circuit cameras to their new R160s, this is a dismaying development. One of the reasons for this security problem is the MTA’s on-going legal fight with Lockheed Martin, most recently highlighted by a state comptroller’s report on subway security. The truth remains, however, that if the MTA is going to get rid of station agents, they have to make sure something else is making the system secure and user friendly.
I’ve doubted the station agents’ ultimate impact as a deterrent because they don’t leave the booths and are under no legal obligation to stop a crime in progress, but people may be deterred just by their simple presence, and as the MTA urges people to say something if they see something, someone has to be there to receive the complaint. The intercoms don’t work; the cameras don’t work; and now the the MTA has politicians concerned with homeland security breathing down its back. For better or worse, the authority can’t sacrifice the safety of its system for the demands of its tenuous budget. The agency needs money, and if the feds are so concerned, they could start to funnel more security dollars to the MTA. It would be a start for sure.