Gov. Kathy Hochul showed her true colors on Monday when she signed a watered-down bill to combat subway crime.
Sedrick’s Law, which was originally proposed by Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte and Sen. Kevin Parker, both Brooklyn Democrats, would have required the MTA to install cameras on all of its subway platforms within six months of its becoming law.
The bill Hochul signed has neutered language that only stipulates that the MTA “reasonably maintain” cameras throughout the system, and that they “may” be placed on the platforms as opposed to “shall.”
The MTA’s surveillance camera program faced scrutiny in April after a gunman wounded 10 people on a subway platform in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
Station cameras that could have caught the incident and its aftermath were out-of-order at the time of the shooting — prompting several ongoing investigations.
Brooklynite Sedrick Simon died in 2019 when he was hit by a train at a station without platform cameras.
The changes made to her initial proposal “allow flexibility for potential changes of camera placements to ensure maximum safety, due to a looming NYC budget gap and ongoing major MTA transit system redevelopment projects,” Bichotte told The Post.
Transit officials already maintain “more than 11,000” cameras at every station in the system, an authority spokesman said.
However no one knows how many of the “more than 11,000” cameras are actually working at one time and Hochul does not want to know.