by One of One-Sixty
Aug. 2--The days of blurry, black-and-white, first-man-on-the-moon
images from SEPTA security cameras designed to catch turnstile
jumpers are giving way to digital recorders focused on life-and-death
crimes in these terrorist-scarred times.
In a federally funded pilot project, SEPTA has installed 16 digital
recording cameras throughout its Cecil B. Moore [Temple University]
subway station on Broad Street that relay the kind of crisply
detailed color images to its Center City control room that enabled
London police to identify suspects soon after the transit-system
bombings there.
There will be 21 more "Smart Stations" here by 2007, and all 60 SEPTA
stations will have full digital surveillance by 2010, said James
Jordan, SEPTA's assistant general manager for public safety. The
federally funded price tag is $80 million to $100 million.
"This is not something you can just go out and buy at Radio Shack,"
Jordan said. "We need to build a fiber-optic network in 25 miles of
tunnel and bring 21st- century high-tech engineering into
19th-century architecture."
SEPTA's police and operations personnel in the central control room
can see a continuous rotation of real-time images from station
platforms, turnstiles, escalators, elevators and tunnels.
"I have three cases now where we were able to make arrests because of
the digital cameras," said SEPTA Police Detective William B. Saunders
Jr.
"We coordinate with Temple University, which has cameras focused on
the street outside the station. We ask, 'Which way did he go after he
left the station?' and they can tell us.
"We help them, too. If there's a retail theft and the suspect runs
into the station, we've got him on camera and we work with Temple
police to apprehend him."
Digital cameras also are running and recording at the
Susquehanna-Dauphin, Allegheny and Erie stations.
Images are stored on CD for a week to 10 days.
David Scott, SEPTA's deputy chief of police, said that the strength
of Smart Stations is their ability to coordinate all security
functions.
"If a fire alarm goes off, a red light on a diagram of the station
pinpoints the location and a camera zooms in on the fire," he said.
"Intrusion alarms in the tunnels tell us if security is breached.
"We have 360-degree pan-tilt-zoom cameras that we can maneuver from
central control.
"We are looking into cameras so smart that if someone leaves a
briefcase for 10 seconds and walks away, there will be an audible
alarm in the control room while the camera focuses on the briefcase."
SEPTA's Smart Stations compare favorably with new surveillance
systems in other major East Coast cities.
At Boston's Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, Jeffrey
Parker, director of subway operations, said a similar conversion to
digital images transmitted by fiber optics was under way,
hand-in-hand with the city's rebuilding of its 65 ancient stations.
Boston's unique twist is that images are monitored inside
glass-enclosed booths at its major "hub" stations, allowing riders to
survey the surveillance.
"Instead of putting the monitors in the basement of our control
center so that no one would see them, we put our monitoring in very
public places," Parker said.
"We want to be out in front of the public to show that we are keeping
an eye on things."
Steven Taubenkibel, spokesperson for the Washington D.C. Metropolitan
Area Transit Authority, said that all its 86 stations have digital
video-recording cameras that transmit both to a central control and
to a manager's kiosk at every station entrance.
Unlike SEPTA, Washington's Metro also has digital video cameras in
100 buses and has just allocated part of a $49 million federal grant
to install them in 125 more.
Recently, Taubenkibel said, a camera installed above a driver's head
captured footage of an assailant hurling a brick through the open bus
door and hitting the driver in the face.
"We showed images from the tape to the public and were able to
apprehend the suspect," Taubenkibel said.
"We rely on the eyes and ears of our riders, but those cameras really
help."
images from SEPTA security cameras designed to catch turnstile
jumpers are giving way to digital recorders focused on life-and-death
crimes in these terrorist-scarred times.
In a federally funded pilot project, SEPTA has installed 16 digital
recording cameras throughout its Cecil B. Moore [Temple University]
subway station on Broad Street that relay the kind of crisply
detailed color images to its Center City control room that enabled
London police to identify suspects soon after the transit-system
bombings there.
There will be 21 more "Smart Stations" here by 2007, and all 60 SEPTA
stations will have full digital surveillance by 2010, said James
Jordan, SEPTA's assistant general manager for public safety. The
federally funded price tag is $80 million to $100 million.
"This is not something you can just go out and buy at Radio Shack,"
Jordan said. "We need to build a fiber-optic network in 25 miles of
tunnel and bring 21st- century high-tech engineering into
19th-century architecture."
SEPTA's police and operations personnel in the central control room
can see a continuous rotation of real-time images from station
platforms, turnstiles, escalators, elevators and tunnels.
"I have three cases now where we were able to make arrests because of
the digital cameras," said SEPTA Police Detective William B. Saunders
Jr.
"We coordinate with Temple University, which has cameras focused on
the street outside the station. We ask, 'Which way did he go after he
left the station?' and they can tell us.
"We help them, too. If there's a retail theft and the suspect runs
into the station, we've got him on camera and we work with Temple
police to apprehend him."
Digital cameras also are running and recording at the
Susquehanna-Dauphin, Allegheny and Erie stations.
Images are stored on CD for a week to 10 days.
David Scott, SEPTA's deputy chief of police, said that the strength
of Smart Stations is their ability to coordinate all security
functions.
"If a fire alarm goes off, a red light on a diagram of the station
pinpoints the location and a camera zooms in on the fire," he said.
"Intrusion alarms in the tunnels tell us if security is breached.
"We have 360-degree pan-tilt-zoom cameras that we can maneuver from
central control.
"We are looking into cameras so smart that if someone leaves a
briefcase for 10 seconds and walks away, there will be an audible
alarm in the control room while the camera focuses on the briefcase."
SEPTA's Smart Stations compare favorably with new surveillance
systems in other major East Coast cities.
At Boston's Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, Jeffrey
Parker, director of subway operations, said a similar conversion to
digital images transmitted by fiber optics was under way,
hand-in-hand with the city's rebuilding of its 65 ancient stations.
Boston's unique twist is that images are monitored inside
glass-enclosed booths at its major "hub" stations, allowing riders to
survey the surveillance.
"Instead of putting the monitors in the basement of our control
center so that no one would see them, we put our monitoring in very
public places," Parker said.
"We want to be out in front of the public to show that we are keeping
an eye on things."
Steven Taubenkibel, spokesperson for the Washington D.C. Metropolitan
Area Transit Authority, said that all its 86 stations have digital
video-recording cameras that transmit both to a central control and
to a manager's kiosk at every station entrance.
Unlike SEPTA, Washington's Metro also has digital video cameras in
100 buses and has just allocated part of a $49 million federal grant
to install them in 125 more.
Recently, Taubenkibel said, a camera installed above a driver's head
captured footage of an assailant hurling a brick through the open bus
door and hitting the driver in the face.
"We showed images from the tape to the public and were able to
apprehend the suspect," Taubenkibel said.
"We rely on the eyes and ears of our riders, but those cameras really
help."
