MTA reviewing EAGLE Team training after physical confrontations between fare inspectors, bus riders
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority says its Evasion and Graffiti Lawlessness Eradication (EAGLE) Teams aren't going away despite two recent confrontations between fare inspectors and bus riders that turned physical.
The agency is now reviewing its training.
"We need to have some form of proof payment system into our system," MTA Transit President Demetrius Crichlow said.
Crichlow points to recommendations from an MTA panel on fare evasion.
"They recommended that it be an unarmed fare enforcement team, and so we're committed to doing that, having the teams in place," he said. "But again, it can't be like this."
The MTA is investigating two incidents, one in Brooklyn on Oct. 6 and another in the Bronx back in August.
In Brooklyn, Kyle Taylor says he paid his fare using a transfer before inspectors confronted him. Video shows him being pinned against a bus shelter and taken to the ground.
Rev. Kevin McCall, who has been advocating for Taylor, says the Brooklyn educator is still in pain and working to recover.
McCall says he supports the EAGLE Teams program returning, but is calling for changes to how those inspectors are trained.
"I want them trained on how to be able to deal with individuals that are maybe hostile," McCall said. "Fare evasion is a problem in this city and they must do their job, but you don't have to do your job aggressively."
In the Bronx, a rider allegedly threatened an inspector with a knife before being forcibly taken down.
The MTA has temporarily reassigned the employees involved in both incidents.
Retired NYPD detective and John Jay College professor David Sarni believes inspectors also need greater authority, including the power to make arrests.
"What you may have to look at, like TLC does with their inspectors, allow them to become peace officers," he said. "If you become a peace officer, it gives you the availability to make an arrest. When it comes to civilians, you're asking them to do something that is an extremely hazardous situation."
Danny Pearlstein, policy and communications director for the nonprofit Rider's Alliance, sent CBS News New York the following statement: "The MTA made the right decision last week when it pulled the EAGLE teams but retraining is unlikely to make a difference to riders and won't solve the problems with the bus. We need the mayor and governor to work together just like they did with the fast bus plan released in the summer and find new, reliable sources of revenue to replace the dwindling bus fare and provide the service riders need."
The MTA says it still plans to use unarmed fare inspectors, but there's no announced timeline for when the employees involved will return to fare enforcement.
