Adams: No ‘Frustration’ with Camera Problems, Lack of Transit Cops at Attacked Station, We’re Focusing on Having ‘Omnipresence’

On Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) said he isn’t frustrated with problems with cameras and the lack of transit police in the station where an attack occurred on Tuesday, and that the mayor’s office is working with the transit authority to figure out what happened with the camera and has focused on “ensuring the omnipresence” of law enforcement “that’s needed throughout the entire system.”

Host Rachel Maddow asked, “Are you frustrated, Mr. Mayor, that there does not appear to have been any surveillance footage from the station, that there does not appear to have been, for whatever reason, any working surveillance cameras at the site of the shooting? We also know that there were no transit police officers in the station where this happened. Those factors, obviously, are a hindrance to the investigation and may have been a hindrance to stopping the crime before it got as bad as it did. Are you frustrated by those factors that have emerged today since the crime happened?”

Adams responded, “No, there’s no level of frustration that has settled in. We are communicating with the MTA, the agency that is in charge of the cameras. We are communicating with them to identify what happened. One of the sole purposes for having cameras in the subway system is to identify acts like this, and we are pinpointing exactly what went wrong with the feed and they have been extremely cooperative. And the transit police personnel, they have been really covering our vast subway system. Since January 6 until this weekend, we have conducted over 265,000 subway inspections, complementing the patrol bureau, and having them also conduct inspections, and really zooming in on ensuring the omnipresence that’s needed throughout the entire system.”

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