MTAs troubled EAGLE fare enforcement teams nixed after NYC dean got roughed up, other brutal incidents

The MTA is suspending its EAGLE bus fare inspection teams for allegedly roughing up passengers in a series of disturbing incidents they failed to report on time — as the teams aren’t even succeeding in lowering fare evasion, officials said.The move by transit boss Janno Lieber comes as fare skipping rose from 36% in 2022 to 48% in the first half of 2026, despite the presence of the teams.It also comes a day after a $25 million suit was filed against the MTA by Kyle Taylor, a Brooklyn school dean who was roughed up by EAGLE inspectors over allegedly not paying the $3 fare in an incident caught on video earlier this month.Lieber said that outburst of violence — which has been denounced by passenger advocate groups — was never reported to his office.He also said a similar harassment complaint against MTA fare inspectors over an encounter with a man aboard a Bronx bus was not sent up the chain of command.“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,” Lieber said.

“It now appears that there is another episode where that failure to timely report is even more extreme.”Taylor’s attorney, Benjamin Pinczewski, wasn’t buying it.“How could they not have know about it? The MTA tried to cover this up,” he told The Post.Lieber said he asked MTA security chief Michael Kemper, a 30-year NYPD veteran, to look at “the whole shebang,” including how the teams are trained and how the around 350 EAGLE inspectors report incidents.As he announced the EAGLE suspension late Thursday, he also called on rider to please pay the fare.“We have to play by the rules or they start to fall apart,” he said.EAGLE teams have checked fares on Select Bus Service routes since 2008 and expanded to local buses in 2023, but fare evasion on buses still climbed that year, from 36% in 2022 to 43% in 2023, and it hit 48% in the first half of 2026.Subway fare evasion is about 10%, a...