New equipment technology

Little update on the onboard cameras. There has been a lot of concern when the cameras will go "live," and whether it will only be active in the operating and the non-operating cabs. As of right now the plan is once the engineer keys him/herself in, all cameras will be live including non-operating cabs.

Govern yourself accordingly once this new technology is implemented as it is unclear right now whether footage will only be pulled when an incident occurs or will be used to monitor crew members. I have also been told the audio and video are beyond most people's expectations and will not be the choppy footage you see on reruns of COPS.

Stay tuned.

Also be advised that in all cabs others than the operating cab, the seats will heat up to prevent lazy trainmen from sitting in the cabs and not collect fares. Cameras will be live throughout the train including deadheads and with low light capability. The LIRR is considering a sign in program where the crew including the engineer, when reporting to the conductor, sign in with him on his smartphone to make sure all crew members are on the train. We have to be sure the all crew members are where they are supposed to be, including engineers.

As other agencies with cameras have discovered, the cameras are huge liabilities to the agency. With them comes the obligation to monitor the footage and act on dangerous situations. They can no longer claim ignorance or "third party" when they have installed technology that can inform of and prevent problems.

Let me predict that the present 18% of uncollected fares is significantly reduced after the first trial notices go out.

The days of getting relief as an engineer or trainman bailing are numbered along with a lot of other things. Makes me wonder if spotters will be a thing of the past as you will be able to monitor in real time trainmen' performance or lack thereof. I doubt they will allow the outside contractors whom supply the Railroad with spotters to be trained to analyze video footage but I could be wrong.

Kelly is right about increased liability. The Railroad will be forced to act in a lot of situations it normally may have absolved itself from.

I wonder if this will open up a whole new avenue of employment roles to monitor literally thousands of video feeds...general superintendent of train footage, director of in-cab cameras, vestibule camera gang foreman

What will happen at places like woodside and flushing main st? When you know 20 people got on the train but when you walk through and announce "woodside" tickets only 2 people hand you a ticket? And the rest hide or pretend to be asleep or claim they got checked already. Do you still get credit for walking through?

ADL, if you look at the Manual for Fare Collection, you'll see that proper seat checking procedures account for your identifying the 20 valued customers who crowd in at Flushing or Woodside. No problem finding every nickel if you properly seat-checked the car. If you didn't, then you are stealing - exchanging your employers hard earned revenues for less work. Do you really think the PRR would have taken your excuse for missing fares as valid?

Of course, the system requires a certain diligence as well as an understanding on behalf of the supervisors who can easily criticize the performance of a task they have never been required to perform. Just as "body-cameras" worn by police mean an end to the discretionary "warnings" issued to good-guy speeders, the train cams will make easy the task of charging any employee deemed worthy.

Seat checking isnt required on eastbound trains.

Someone from On Board Services/ Passenger Revenue Accounting now retired explained to me MTA spotters were basically "wards" of the state. A lot of times their incident reports from riding trains didn't nearly match the people working(assigned) to those actual trains on the crew manifest. The spotters got their jobs through area unemployment offices. Once again this was from someone who dealt with spotter reports and questioned crew members after reported occurrences of failure to collect fares.

I cannot see the cameras working much better in the future. I'm sure a few years into their active service careers half the video equipment on M9's will be inoperable. Needless to say it's just safer to attempt to do what we are paid for.

I've been told by managers that the spotters are basically homeless people hired from a temp agency.

I thought they were retired Amtrash supervisors/assistant supervisors, managers/assistant managers, superintendants/assistant superintendants, vice presidents/assistant vice presidents, executive vice presidents/assistant executive vice presidents I could go on as I only got to the first few layers, but my fingers are getting tired......

As a site admin/mod but editorializing - I think this is one of the most insightful threads I've seen in a long time. While there is some strenuous disagreement, it presents a lot of viewpoints and there is no ad-hoc name calling. By NYC standards, these folks are being downright friendly (OK I'm having a bit of fun with this statement).

There are many different types of "spotters," and most are indeed hired miscreants through a temp agency. Their "fare collection audits" are run by the MTA, which sends the findings to the LIRR where they are assigned half-hearted follow ups by managers who lack more important tasks. (Did you accept a 92-day-old One Way Ticket?) (We have a report that you accepted a female monthly with the 'F' covered up.)

When an employee is suspected of a serious offense, like stealing or palming tickets, the LIRR usually uses its own employees as spotters. These people are garnished from other non-operating departments. In this manner, they are credible witnesses if needed. In very sensitive investigations, employees from other MTA agencies are used (TBTA or NYCTA).

Of course criminal investigations usually are handled using plain-clothed MTA or NYC Police Officers.

In a previous career, I handled such investigations. It's not uncommon to put 25 spotters on a suspected employee's trains to secure positive evidence of theft. I'm sure today, such surveillance is also recorded.

With AWOL investigations, the MTA PD checks bridge cameras, EasyPass, Cell Phone and other GPS information. They have also waited at employees homes to watch what time they come home.

Many of these schemes have been used against management employees more often than those represented, and no, train service are not the worse offenders by any measure.

thanks

K&K, nice post. What you say is spot on in regards to the AWOL employees.

Another thing omitted from discussion that's being discussed about in meetings are the cameras helping with gap incidents as well as fraudulent injury claims sustained by riders and employees. Kelly, I'm sure your office has heard some of this. I predict less "golden parachutes," being deployed after the cameras are implemented.