TFL TRIALS AGAIN LIVE CLOSED-CIRCUIT TV ON LONDON BUSES
Transport for London has begun a six-month trial of live CCTV on a north London bus route. Twenty one Arriva double-decker buses have been fitted with technology that will allow pictures to be beamed live to the Centrecomm control centre shared by officers from Transport for London and the Metropolitan Police’s Transport Operational Command Unit.
When bus drivers on the trial route make a radio call to the control room, operators are now able to use the new technology to access real-time images of the bus in question. Pictures are beamed via secure and encrypted mobile networks directly from the buses to the Transport for London control room.
Operators, working directly alongside officers from the Metropolitan Police, will be able to view any of the cameras on the bus and direct police officers to the scene if required. The trial will monitor and analyse the use of the technology to decide whether it can help deal with incidents on buses more effectively.
If this trial is successful Tfl will consider rolling out the system on other routes. Transport for London will carry out an evaluation of the trial in June next year.
Every London bus currently has a CCTV system installed that records images, which can be downloaded on request. This has proved an invaluable policing tool and, for example, has led to a tripling of the arrest rate for criminal damage on buses in the capital.
Tfl tested CCTV before on their vehicles, in November 2007 an earlier experiment was halted because it wanted to look further into the benefits and cost implications of live CCTV streaming before going ahead with it. An earlier, short trial of the technology, on an out of service London bus was successful. The bus drove around central London for four days in September, and the signal was lost for less than two minutes in total.
