EAGLE Down: MTA Pulls Fare Enforcement Agents From Bus System
These eagles are grounded.
The MTA has removed fare enforcement agents from the city’s sprawling bus network after a pair of high-profile incidents where agents assaulted passengers, and will not restore the so-called EAGLE teams until the agency conducts a top-to-bottom review of how they interact with riders and report incidents to senior staff, MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber announced on Thursday morning.
Lieber told reporters that EAGLE teams did not properly inform agency leaders of two skirmishes where officers made physical contact with bus riders. These include an October 6 incident in which EAGLE agents allegedly punched a school aide. Lieber added that he recently learned of another, older incident but did not share any further details about it.
“I’m not willing to keep our teams active in the field until I know that all protocols are being followed with respect to customer interactions,” Lieber said at an unrelated press conference. “Both how they’re conducted but also with respect to the reporting and investigation of incidents. Which is going to happen, and they need to be timely reported so they can be timely investigated. As a result I’m ordering an immediate safety stand down until these investigations conclude.”
The MTA began using EAGLE teams to enforce fares on buses in 2008, after the agency introduced Select Bus Service, which required passengers to pay their fares at a street kiosk and then board the bus using any door. EAGLE stands for Evasion And Graffiti Lawlessness Eradication.
Lieber assigned the comprehensive review to MTA Chief of Security Michael Kemper, a former NYPD Chief of Transit who oversaw the department’s activities in the subway system.
“We’re going to have Michael Kemper look at the whole shebang and see if there are ways it needs to be improved,” the MTA boss said. “Certainly the protocols about reporting need to be updated. Riders deserve complete confidence that our fare enforcement is fair and courteous, and our EAGLE teams won’t be reentering the field until I am confident that their training and their reporting and investigation protocols meet our high standards.”
The move to pull the fare enforcement teams from buses is a big step for Lieber, who has heavily focused on reducing fare evasion during his five-year tenure atop the transit agency. Among bus passengers, fare evasion rates hover around 50 percent. The agency attributes part of the trend to riders opting out after the three-month period at the start of the pandemic when the MTA suspended fares and allowed passengers to board via the back door.
Lieber’s concern with fare evasion led him to repeatedly delay a pilot program that would allow riders to pay their fares at the back door of buses. With the inevitable death of the MetroCard, Lieber finally began to move in the direction of approving all-door boarding. To work as a policy, all-door boarding requires a proof-of-payment system, commonly found in Europe, in which fare agents check whether riders actually paid their fare while they riding the bus. The MTA even included all-door boarding in a recent list of fixes for speeding up city buses.
However, riders and transit advocates have criticized EAGLE teams long before cameras caught them beating up innocent straphangers. The officers often halted buses entirely while they checked if every single rider aboard paid their fare. And passengers complained that the verification system didn’t even work, because of a serious lag between the time they tapped an OMNY reader and the time the payment actually showed up in the system. That lag led EAGLE teams to falsely accuse riders of skipping their fare.
With the latest incidents on the books, Lieber now appears to believe the EAGLE teams are not quite ready for primetime. “We’re gonna take a break, we’ll take another look and we’ll be back when we’ve completed that [review],” he said.
Lieber reiterated his belief that the EAGLE teams — and their task of reducing fare evasion to the point where New Yorkers no longer believe they are optional — is crucial to funding and maintaining the MTA. But rider advocates pointed to the ongoing issues with proof of payment on buses as a reason to embrace free buses.
“Bus riders know firsthand the failings of EAGLE team fare enforcement and we commend MTA leadership for today’s decision,” said Riders Alliance Director of Policy and Communications Danny Pearlstein. “Aggressive tactics that hurt people and slow down the bus cannot meet New Yorker’s needs or address public transit’s persistent fiscal challenges. We urge City and state leaders to negotiate a revenue package that funds the fast, free and frequent bus service New Yorkers deserve. We look forward to working with our government partners to fix the bus and make it a great transportation option in a more affordable city.”
The Mamdani administration praised Lieber’s move. “No New Yorker should fear for their safety because they cannot afford the fare,” said City Hall spokesperson Jeremy Edwards. “We welcome the MTA’s decision to suspend fare enforcement while it investigates reports of excessive force by members of its fare collection teams. Our transit system should make life easier, not harder.”
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