Last week Metro’s board voted on a contract for security cameras at its Park and Pillage lots, about 1 1/2 years after Metro Police Chief Tom Lambert admitted he needed to find some technology. Today Rad Sallee has more:
When the Metropolitan Transit Authority canceled its security guard contract for Park & Ride lots in January 2005, it replaced the on-site guards with roving Metro police and a promise to add surveillance cameras.
Now those officers are about to get that long-awaited helping hand. The Metro board voted last week to buy a $20 million wireless system for video surveillance and traffic signal control.
It will enable one officer in the Houston TranStar traffic control center to monitor activity at 25 Park & Ride lots and the Hillcroft Transit Center, said Erik Oistad, Metro vice president for information technology.
[snip]
The board watched a demonstration video shot at the Downtown Transit Center. Oistad said the software was programmed to alert the viewer if any of three things happened: a vehicle smaller than a bus parking in the bus bay, a pedestrian entering the area reserved for buses, or an object being left on the loading dock for more than 30 seconds.
In the demonstration, a Metro officer drove his patrol car into the bay, strolled across the driveway to the dock and left a package. “Gotcha,” Oistad said, as the computer drew a red square around each occurrence.
Okay, here’s where it gets good:
Some board members were skeptical.
“It seems like we’re putting a $20 million system on one clerk,” Jackie Freeman said.
“The effectiveness of the system is primarily going to be riding on your ability to program it for these incidents,” he said. “Give me an example of how you would program it for a guy asking to borrow a cell phone and then taking off with it.”
Metro Police Chief Tom Lambert replied that in such a case, the victim would report the theft on one of the blue phones and police would scroll back the video, which he said yields “evidence quality” images from up to 300 feet.
“If we knew a person was in a blue Mercedes-Benz 280, we could go back and find the license plate number,” Lambert said. The system also enables the gates to the lot to be locked remotely, he said.
Now that’s some pro-active law enforcement! Who needs the deterrent of an actual security guard when you can have one guy watching a security camera feed at Transtar? And don’t forget that last year Metro reminded its customers they can arm themselves (with a concealed carry permit, of course).
I am convinced Chief Lambert and Chief Hurtt meet for breakfast every morning.
(BTW, when Metro first pulled security guards from the Park and Pillage lots, Metro police Captain Mike Raney said that a new video surveillance system would cost about $2 million to install, cost little after that, and would be installed last summer. That worked out well.)
