112th Precinct Community Council

NYTIMES article about our efforts to get cameras

article

Forest Hills
When the Crime Fighter Is a Hidden Camera



By JEFF VANDAM
Published: November 6, 2005
In August, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced a deal in which the aeronautics giant Lockheed Martin lead a group of contractors in installing a $212 million, 1,000-camera surveillance system in the city's subway stations. The agreement, which also included 3,000 motion sensors and cellphone service in many stations, came on the heels of the London subway bombings in July.

But in Forest Hills, Queens, residents have long clamored for cameras. And they are still wondering when, or if, cameras will be installed, and why other stations have received cameras when theirs haven't.

"It would help improve the safety for our riders in the subway," said Heidi Chain, president of the 112th Precinct Community Council. "Apparently the M.T.A. seems to be in agreement on that. Otherwise, why would they be spending this money for some stations and not all?" The issue was first reported in The Queens Times Ledger.

In June, Ms. Chain wrote to Lawrence G. Reuter, the president of New York City Transit, urging his agency to install cameras in five stations along the E, F, G, R and V lines, where a string of muggings in the spring had put residents on edge. The stations are 63rd Drive-Rego Park, 67th Avenue, 71st Avenue, 75th Avenue and Union Turnpike.

Ms. Chain found Mr. Reuter's response, on July 28, less than satisfying. "As you note in your letter, NYC Transit has installed CCTV systems in a number of subway stations," he wrote. "We would like to do more, but all of our current capital program security funds are committed to other security projects."

To Ms. Chain, the message was clear: "Yeah, we're contemplating putting them in, but not by you." Now she is leading a renewed campaign for cameras, which includes getting the support of the local community board and the help of local officials.

According to the office of Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi, a spate of muggings earlier this year are thought to have been the work of one individual. A suspect was arrested in April and the muggings stopped; Mr. Hevesi contended that they could have been resolved much faster with cameras.

"These stations are vulnerable to this type of crime," said Mr. Hevesi, who with Councilwoman Melinda Katz wrote to Mr. Reuter last month restating the call for cameras in the stations.

James Anyansi, a spokesman for New York City Transit, said that the agency did not now have enough money to install cameras in every subway station. Cameras were installed in nine Brooklyn stations this year, he said, after Assemblyman Dov Hikind got money for them.

As for the Forest Hills stations, Mr. Anyansi said, "We are ready to work with them in this situation."

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