Owen J. Monaghan has been appointed Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) chief of police, effective January 7. Monaghan succeeds Michael R. Coan, who led the MTA Police Department for eight and a half years. Coan is the longest serving police chief in the department’s history.
Monaghan joined the MTA in March of 2015 as vice president of security for MTA-New York City Transit. Prior to that, he was employed by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) for more than 30 years.
At the NYPD, he held several senior leadership roles and rose to the rank of assistant chief. He commanded the 13th precinct of Patrol Borough Brooklyn South before becoming executive officer of the Transit Bureau. He also held commanding officer positions at the 109th Precinct, Transit District’s 1 & 34.
Monaghan earned a Master of Public Administration from Marist College and is a graduate of Columbia University’s Police Management Institute.
The MTA Police Department patrols the stations, tracks, trains, railroad crossings, shops, and yards of the Long Island Rail Road, Metro-North Railroad, and Staten Island Railway. Its jurisdiction spans a 5,000 square-mile territory across 14 counties in New York and Connecticut.