NEW YORK — The MTA plans to put its fare checking teams back on city buses following a thorough look into the teams’ training sparked by two violent confrontations in recent months, NYC Transit President Demetrius Crichlow said Monday. The teams, part of the MTA’s so-called Evasion and Graffiti Lawlessness Eradication, or EAGLE, program, were pulled from fare-checking duties last week after a ...

MTA President Demetrius Crichlow at a press conference at Kings County Hospital, Brooklyn, New York City, on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024.

Shawn Inglima/New York Daily News/TNS

NEW YORK — The MTA plans to put its fare checking teams back on city buses following a thorough look into the teams’ training sparked by two violent confrontations in recent months, NYC Transit President Demetrius Crichlow said Monday.

The teams, part of the MTA’s so-called Evasion and Graffiti Lawlessness Eradication, or EAGLE, program, were pulled from fare-checking duties last week after a pair of incidents surfaced in which surveillance footage showed EAGLE team fare checkers engaged in physical confrontations with passengers during fare checks.

While many members of the EAGLE teams are former police officers, the teams are not peace officers under state law, nor are they armed.

“It is not New York City Transit’s policy that our employees, any employees, should be getting physical with our customers,” Crichlow said at a meeting of the MTA’s board on Monday. “This is not indicative of the level of professionalism we have come to expect from the team.”

For now, the teams have been reassigned to other EAGLE duties, Crichlow said, including graffiti investigations, train-yard inspections and patrols of some transit facilities.

“They’ll be doing more of that now, until we get to the point where they’re back in the field,” Crichlow said. “I want to make it clear, we need to have some form of a proof of payment system.”

Crichlow cited a 2023 blue-ribbon panel report on fair evasion that called for more fair enforcement by unarmed fare-checkers.

“We’re committed to doing that, having the teams in place,” Crichlow said. “It can’t be like this. We have to do better.”

The MTA is currently evaluating the training given to EAGLE teams, as well as continuing to investigate the two incidents caught on tape, Crichlow said.

“It’s clear that there’s work to do,” he added.

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MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber speaks during a press conference in the Fulton Transit Center Thursday, March 28, 2024, in Manhattan, New York City.

Barry Williams/New York Daily News/TNS

The MTA had earlier removed four fare checkers from duty after surveillance footage — first reported by the Daily News— showed them pushing Brooklyn school aide Kyle Taylor up against a bus stop shelter in Brownsville after he tried to push past them as they checked whether he paid his bus fare. Taylor fell to the ground twice during the altercation.

Last week, MTA chairman Janno Lieber cited that incident and another altercation in August, saying he was temporarily pulling the EAGLE teams from buses altogether — in part because the violent altercations were never reported internally to MTA brass.

“I was not happy that leadership of the MTA and New York City Transit didn’t even hear about that episode until more than a week afterward,” Lieber said last Thursday, referring to the confrontation with Taylor. “It now appears that there is another episode where that failure to timely report is even more extreme — the incident that’s come to attention is now several months old.”

Sources tell The News that the earlier incident took place on Aug. 6 near the intersection of White Plains Rd. and Gun Hill Rd. in the Bronx, when a man aboard a Bx 39 bus got combative during a fare check. The man was escorted off the bus, but returned to menace the driver, a source with knowledge of the incident told The News.

An NYPD spokesperson said a police report had been filed against the passenger for harassment.

“Three victims stated an individual was yelling and acting irate causing them to feel annoyed and alarmed. The individual left prior to police arrival,” the NYPD spokesperson said. “There were no reported injuries. There are no arrests.”

Surveillance footage from a nearby building, reviewed by The News, shows the man and an EAGLE team member fall from the front door of the bus onto the street. Two more EAGLE team members follow, and attempt to pin him to the ground. The video ends soon after, but a source familiar with the incident told The News that the EAGLE team said the man ran off, and later returned to menace them with a knife.The NYPD report did not mention a weapon.

The EAGLE teams have been increasingly tasked with enforcing the bus fare in recent years, and are authorized to check for proof of fare payment and issue tickets to those who haven’t paid.

Slightly more than half of the city’s bus riders pay the fare, according to MTA data.

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