MTA wants AI to flag 'problematic behavior' in NYC subways

It’s a brave new world in New York City’s subways.

MTA Chief Security Officer Michael Kemper said the agency plans to use artificial intelligence technology to detect “potential trouble or problematic behavior on our subway platforms.”

Kemper said he’s working with AI companies to deploy software that can analyze real-time footage from subway security cameras and issue automated alerts to the NYPD “if someone is acting out irrationally.” He called the technology “predictive prevention” that can essentially identify subway criminals before they commit crimes.

“AI is the future,” Kemper said during a committee meeting on Monday . “We're working with tech companies literally right now and seeing what's out there right now on the market, what's feasible, what would work in the subway system.”

MTA spokesperson Aaron Donovan said the agency won't use facial recognition in its beefed up surveillance.

"The technology being explored by the MTA is designed to identify behaviors, not people," he wrote in a statement.

The push is the latest in a sprawling effort by the MTA and Gov. Kathy Hochul to address safety concerns among riders following a string of unprovoked attacks in the subway system, including several riders who were shoved onto the tracks in recent years.

While NYPD data shows major felonies in the subways are down from pre-pandemic levels this year, the number of assaults reported in the system remains up. Last year, 10 people were murdered in the subways, according to police.

Since she took office in 2021, Hochul has called for increased video surveillance in the transit system. The MTA now has security cameras on every subway platform and inside every train car.

Kemper said about 40% of the platform cameras are now monitored in real time.

Criminal justice watchdogs criticized the MTA’s plan to use AI to identify potential criminals, saying it’s a bridge too far to improve public safety.

“Using artificial intelligence — a technology notoriously unreliable and biased — to monitor our subways and send in police risks exacerbating these disparities and creating new problems,” New York Civil Liberties Union Senior Policy Counsel Justin Harrison wrote in a statement. “Living in a sweeping surveillance state shouldn’t be the price we pay to be safe. Real public safety comes from investing in our communities, not from omnipresent surveillance.

The news of the AI initiative comes a month after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy threatened to withhold federal funding from the MTA if the agency didn’t present a plan to reduce crime and homelessness in the subways. The transit agency later sent the feds a plan, much of which was already public.