NYC Using AI to Track Subway Fare Skippers

New York City is reportedly using artificial intelligence as a way to catch people trying to ride the subway without paying a fare.

The system has been quite rolled out to several different stations in the city, with more expected to be added by the end of the year, NBC News reports(Opens in a new window). According to a report on fare evasion published by the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), the software was being used in seven subway stations in May of this year; however, it anticipates using it in more than two dozen stations by the end of the year, with more to follow.

Currently, the tool isn’t being used to catch fare evaders; instead it’s tracking how much money the subway is potentially losing due to people riding for free. It also tracks how, in particular, fare evaders are skipping paying the fare.

Recordings are made of fare skippers and stored on the MTA’s servers for a limited time. Currently, the videos are not shared with law enforcement, NBC News says.

The software was created by Spanish software company AWAAIT. The same software is being used on trains in Barcelona. There, it sends photos of fare evaders to nearby station officers.

The MTA has maintained that it does not intend on using the service as an aid for law enforcement, and plans to use it exclusively as a tracking tool.

The NYPD made 601 arrests and passed out 13,157 summons for fare evasion in the fourth quarter of last year(Opens in a new window). Those numbers came after the MTA announced plans to dramatically increase the presence of law enforcement underground, in large part to deter larger-scale crimes. For the first quarter of 2023, those numbers are up a bit. The NYPD has made 923 arrests for subway fare evasion and has passed out 28,057 summons.