Overview
- The MTA halted all EAGLE Team bus deployments last week and reassigned or suspended the employees shown in two widely shared videos while NYC Transit’s Special Investigations and Review unit investigates the incidents.
- Transit officials told the agency board on Wednesday that the probe centers on an Oct. 6 Brooklyn encounter involving school aide Kyle Taylor and an August Bronx confrontation and is expected to finish by mid-to-late next week.
- Kyle Taylor alleges he was assaulted by EAGLE agents, has reported injuries, and has filed a lawsuit against the MTA; video shows him being pinned and taken to the ground outside a B14 route bus stop.
- MTA leaders say EAGLE Teams are unarmed civilian inspectors designated to pilot handheld OMNY proof-of-payment checks and that the agency is reviewing training, hiring background checks and the use of body-worn cameras.
- City Council progressives and rider advocates are pressing the MTA to permanently end EAGLE deployments over claims of disproportionate targeting in low-income neighborhoods while the agency weighs reforms and legal and labor limits on disciplinary action.