Following a violent encounter in Brooklyn and the discovery of a prior incident, MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber suspended the transit agency’s unarmed EAGLE fare enforcement teams indefinitely amid pressure over aggressive tactics and bus fare evasion.
Kyle Taylor’s Case and the $25 Million Notice of Claim
The suspension follows an incident on October 6 involving Kyle Taylor, a 53-year-old public school employee. Taylor was riding a B14 bus in Brooklyn on his way to work when members of the Evasion and Graffiti Lawlessness Eradication program—known as the EAGLE team—stopped him to demand proof of payment.
Taylor maintained that he had already paid his fare by receiving a paper transfer from one bus to the other. Because the paper transfer remained with the bus, he could not produce physical proof of payment upon demand.
Surveillance footage broadcast by news outlets showed inspectors pinning Taylor against a bus, pushing him against a bus stop, and slamming him to the ground. His attorney, Benjamin Pinczewski, noted that the altercation caused injuries to Taylor’s head, neck, back, left shoulder, arm, and elbow, leaving him briefly unconscious. An EAGLE officer filed official paperwork claiming Taylor fell out of the bus
and refused medical attention, an account directly contradicted by the video footage.
Joined by attorney Wayne Wattley and civil rights activist Rev. Kevin McCall, founder of the Crisis Action Center, Taylor filed a $25 million notice of claim against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the New York City Transit Authority.
Janno Lieber Orders Safety Stand-Down Over Delayed Reporting
Faced with the public fallout from the Taylor confrontation and subsequent revelations, MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber announced an immediate safety stand-down on Thursday, October 22, pulling all approximately 350 unarmed EAGLE inspectors from the city’s bus network. Lieber revealed that leadership had learned of a second violent encounter in the Bronx from several months prior that management did not discover until weeks after it occurred.
I was not happy that leadership of the MTA and even New York City Transit didn’t even hear about that episode until more than a week afterwards. It now appears that there is another episode where that failure to timely report is even more extreme. The incident that’s come to attention is now several months old and it didn’t come up.
Lieber assigned MTA Chief of Security Michael Kemper—a 30-year veteran of the NYPD—to review the entire EAGLE operation, including training, agent conduct, and incident reporting protocols.
I’m not willing to keep our teams active in the field until I know that all protocols are being followed with respect to both the customer interactions, how they’re conducted, but also with respect to the reporting and investigation of incidents … As a result I’m ordering an immediate safety stand-down until these investigations conclude.
Escalating Bus Fare Evasion and Financial Stakes for the MTA
The suspension highlights the persistent tension between the MTA’s revenue needs and the operational failures of its bus enforcement model. The agency originally introduced EAGLE teams in 2008 alongside Select Bus Service routes, where passengers pay at street kiosks and board through any door, and later expanded the squads to local buses in 2023.
Yet fare skipping on buses climbed from 36 percent in 2022 to 43 percent in 2023, reaching roughly 48 percent in the first half of 2026. This evasion rate contrasts sharply with the roughly 10 percent evasion rate on the subway system. According to a fiscal analysis by the Citizens Budget Commission cited by The Center Square, uncollected bus fares cost the transit authority $568 million in 2024.
While the MTA noted that paid boardings rose 7 percent when EAGLE inspectors were present, passengers and transit advocates pointed to systemic technical flaws in the payment verification process. Riders reported that a significant lag between tapping an OMNY reader and the payment registering in the system frequently led enforcement agents to falsely accuse compliant riders of skipping the fare.
Rider Advocacy Groups and the Demand for Permanent Reforms
Transit advocacy organizations and community members welcomed the suspension while pushing for structural overhauls before any reinstatement of the units. Betsy Plum, director of the Riders Alliance, criticized the unit’s methods, stating that aggressive tactics that harm passengers and slow down transit cannot resolve public transit’s financial challenges.
Passengers United advocated for mandatory body cameras, bulletproof vests, and comprehensive customer service training for all fare inspectors if the program ever resumes. Meanwhile, civil rights advocates and attorneys representing affected riders continue to press for the complete dissolution of the EAGLE program, citing data showing that enforcement actions disproportionately target riders of color.
