Artificial Intelligence Reportedly Used to Track Public Transit Fare Evaders

According to an NBC News report, New York City’s Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) introduced surveillance software utilizing artificial intelligence to track fare evaders at certain subway stations.

The MTA “quietly” rolled out the software in May and expects to expand the technology to more stations by the end of the year.

“This is a moment where movement around the city has never been more surveilled,” said Albert Fox Cahn, the director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, a nonprofit legal group that advocates for privacy rights in New York City.

NBC News noted the software was created in a foreign country.

“The software was created by the Spanish company AWAAIT,” the outlet stated.

NYC subway using AI to track fare evasion- AWAAIT system was initially used to scan riders going through the metro system and send photos of people it determined were fare evaders 👀 https://t.co/OwDFL27fTm

— Orwell Huxley’s Ghost (@Tinkeringhalo2) July 20, 2023

NBC News reports:

The system, which the city and its transit authority haven’t previously acknowledged by name, uses third-party software that its maker has touted as a way to engage law enforcement to help crack down on fare evasion.

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The system was in use in seven subway stations in May, according to a report on fare evasion published online by the Metropolitan Transit Authority, which oversees New York City’s public transportation. The MTA expects that by the end of the year, the system will expand by “approximately two dozen more stations, with more to follow,” the report says. The report also found that the MTA lost $690 million to fare evasion in 2022.

Joana Flores, an MTA spokesperson, said the AI system doesn’t flag fare evaders to New York police, but she declined to comment on whether that policy could change. A police spokesperson declined to comment.

Tim Minton, the MTA’s communications director, said the system tracks fare evasion to figure out how much money the subway isn’t collecting.

“We’re using it essentially as a counting tool,” Minton said. “The objective is to determine how many people are evading the fare and how are they doing it.”

Minton said the videos are stored on the MTA’s servers and are kept “for a limited period.” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office announced last year that the city’s transit systems had more than 10,000 surveillance cameras.

“A promotional video for AWAAIT’s fare evasion software, created by a Spanish company that operates Barcelona metro trains, depicts a system in which an AWAAIT system was initially used to scan riders going through the metro system and send photos of people it determined were fare evaders to the smartphones of nearby station agents,” NBC News writes.

Watch the promotional video:

Read the 65-page MTA report on fare and toll evasion HERE.