NYPD Statement on MTA Cameras

April 14, 2022

The MTA is a vital partner in the NYPD’s Domain Awareness System and supplies live feeds from 5,100 cameras and an additional 5,000 cameras that record locally throughout the subway system. These are used on average dozens of times on a daily basis to identify specific incidents, crimes and to identify perpetrators. We communicate with the MTA about outages when they occur. If we discover an issue with a feed, we report it to them to make sure they are aware.

At the time of the attack on Tuesday in Brooklyn, the cameras were out at three stations due to a technical issue. Statements that the lack of cameras on the station delayed the manhunt by many hours are unfair and misleading. We had witness descriptions of the suspect and the distinctive, bright colored clothing he wore during the attack. As for his face, during the attack and the escape he wore a large black mask obscuring most of his face. As the Bomb Squad cleared the scene for suspected devices both a rental truck key with a serial number and a piece of identification were recovered by 11:00 am. That allowed us to recover video of the suspect from the Pennsylvania rental location as well as a name and a driver’s license photo from motor vehicle records.

The MTA cameras in other parts of the system were essential elements in determining his movements before and after the shootings. Their personnel worked with us around the clock to identify and retrieve images in this case. While it has become routine to cast blame in many directions after an incident we should remember that the gunman is the sole party responsible for this attack.

John Miller
Deputy Commissioner
Intelligence and Counterterrorism

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