Video security systems in public transit Areas of operation, impact and limitations Video security systems cannot prevent malicious defacements, aggressive vandalism or criminal behaviour by passengers; but if integrated into comprehensive security strategies and security partnerships, they contribute to improving employee and passenger safety and reducing costs from damages to property and bodily injury. Frank Wichmann, Central European Marketing Director for Video Intelligence Solutions at Verint Systems, a provider of video security solutions for mobile areas of operation, describes in this article the requirements that video security solutions must fulfil in public transit and what they are accomplishing on a practical level at BOGESTRA in the Ruhr region. Video security systems operational scenarios in public transit Video security systems in public transit are considered today to be a mark of quality companies report that significantly lower costs are incurred from damages to property and vandalism at video-monitored parking lots, train stations, entrance and exit areas, and in vehicles. If potential offenders know that activity is being continuously recorded, this acts as a deterrent and at the same time promotes social control by other passengers. In terms of defacements, inventory theft and vandalism overall, monitored vehicles perform considerably better than those without cameras. Video surveillance does not, however, offer absolute protection against damages to property or criminal behaviour: Except perhaps for graffiti, vandalism generally occurs spontaneously, for example when someone using public transit becomes disorderly and destructive while intoxicated, without any regard for existing camera systems. In many cases where video assessment could not prevent damages to property or crimes in advance, it offers valuable information for later prosecuting offenders. After incurring damages, companies can evaluate the available images and, if need be, hand over relevant material to prosecutors. This increases the likelihood that the events in question will be prosecuted. In addition, video material provided by the recording systems helps the legal departments at transit agencies in warding off spurious damage claims and in "rehabilitating" employees who have been charged with wrongdoing by others, including other passengers. Frequently the video material shows a very different sequence of events than the one described by the claimant for example, claims made based on injuries sustained in a fall that are supposed to have resulted from the bus driver's driving behaviour can be dismissed if the film shows the passenger was not holding on as everyone is required to do. Allegations that can seriously compromise a company's image, such as those of a woman caught fare dodging who claims she was improperly touched by a fare inspector, could be resolved based on video evidence that supported the employee.
Transit agency recordings can also be of interest to prosecutors when, for example, offender and victim encountered one another in the streetcar or an offender fled with a transit bus after a robbery. If the police or district attorney then request video material from the transit agencies, this can create a lot of expense for those involved: even if the time of the crime and vehicle used are known, evaluating the recordings often takes hours or even days - and ties up costly resources at the transit agency, which wasn t even involved in the event. The increasingly common, outfitting of vehicles with video security equipment is often based on corporate decisions that support the improvement of transit security for purely financial reasons. In particular, the integration into comprehensive security concepts and security partnerships between operators and security personnel bears interesting cost-saving potential, in addition to the significant security potential itself. Demands on video security solutions for public transit Cameras used in public transit must be able to handle fast changes in brightness and ideally switch to monochrome mode if the lighting is insufficient. Good video material is necessary for the image analysis, which must process constantly changing backgrounds due to its mobile use (from one transit stop to the next, light / shadow, etc.). An installation that provides good access to devices and data carriers lowers maintenance and operational expense. Mobile recorders in buses should be as small as possible; devices are also suitable for trains if they are designated for the larger 19" racks. If possible, they should allow use of older hard discs. MPEG-4 dualencoding compression is optimised for a higher resolution of images and a faster frame rate. Interfaces simplify the integration into other systems, hybrid recordings as well as parallel recording of additional relevant information, e.g. from IBIS, GPS etc. Passive (fanless) cooling and integrated heating minimise dust entry into the devices and keep operating temperatures within the allowable range. It should be possible to use SD and CF memory cards for recording the data just like other external storage media. Intelligent analysis and management software should allow controlling and processing of the resulting flood of data; they should also provide data for making decisions in security-related situations at designated times, to previously designated persons. Special tools for image analysis depict complex image views clearly and they offer quick access to images from the mass memory storage device. It should be possible to determine various recording profiles (e.g., alarm or ring recording) and configure monitor views, as needed. To adapt the video security systems to the respective security strategy, it is also important to have the option of defining the type of "events" that are to be recorded. There are also tools for evaluating material and running a search for specific image data: calendar views, chronological search functions, flexible arrangement of images, graphic differentiation of recording forms or metadata monitors with search function, e.g. in recorded IBIS data for
vehicle, route and run number, location and time, can also make accessing the necessary image data much faster. An economical operation of video security systems in vehicle fleets requires platforms that can manage cameras and mobile video recorders across the entire fleet; for example, they control the remote download of image data from the vehicle recorders at the control centre. Automating the transmission of image material to the control centre in designated cases makes it possible for those in charge at the control centre to respond quickly and for security personnel, emergency medical services, technicians, etc. to intervene as needed. In addition, companies also want to have reporting functions, e.g., on the status of applications and equipment that are operated in the fleet and functions for automated software updates. The current Verint product line "Nextiva" fulfils these requirements and also offers many other functions and tools. Our third generation mobile recorder, mdvr, represents a further development of the previous RP12000 and RP4000 recorders. Six-channel models mdvr-6s (standard) for buses are stocked, along with the 12- channel modelmdvr-12s for buses and rail vehicles. The rail version mdvr-12r in a 19"-rack will be on the market from April 2008. The Verint mobile recorder generation includes the new MVM2G Config (Mobile Video Manager, second generation) software for configuring, evaluating and specifying recording profiles, arranging monitor views and for event management. To search for specific image data we recommend our MVM2G ReView; it has an interface based on Microsoft Outlook and allows fast orientation in the data. It makes managing images easier. A manual image search can often take an entire day, but the selective database search with Verint software can often reduce a search to just a few minutes, especially if it is possible to refine the search parameters for the scene in question. This makes Nextiva Transit the video management platform of the next generation, one specially developed for today's public transit demands, bringing together the experience of many thousands of successful installations in the traffic sector. Nextiva Transit can record, evaluate and transmit video, audio and data information from almost any stationary or mobile source, e.g. from buses, trains, train stations, parking lots etc. This integrated video portfolio contains a large selection of wireless and wired devices, sophisticated video analysis, versatile video management software, system-wide automatic function monitoring and robust mobile cameras, monitors and DVRs. The simple integration of Nextiva into CCTV equipment, emergency and onboard information systems makes installation easier and offers a complete, meaningful picture of the transport operation. Nextiva Fleet Manager, an important part of the Nextiva Transit product group, serves to control CCTV devices on buses or trains and was specially developed to provide affordable operation and a low cost of ownership. This considerably reduces administrative overhead costs for the CCTV installation in growing traffic infrastructures.
Verint video security equipment in practice the BOGESTRA example BOGESTRA, which is carrier to 140 million passengers annually between Gelsenkirchen and Bochum, relies on personnel presence in its vehicles and facilities in addition to its technical security equipment. It employs 115 customer care agents for this purpose, of which 22 are specially assigned to the security area, as well as eight plain clothes ticket inspectors. BOGESTRA also collaborates in security partnerships with the police department and municipal public affairs office, and conducts joint patrols with both organisations. The BOGESTRA network in Bochum and Gelsenkirchen operates a fleet of 114 trams and urban railways vehicles along with 251 buses. By 2006, 142 buses had been outfitted with video security equipment; the agency wants to equip the entire fleet as new vehicles are acquired. Stadler has delivered the first 36 trams and light rail vehicles, which are equipped with video security systems by Verint, and have thus begun outfitting the rail vehicles with video equipment as well. At 30 underground urban railways stations, 317 stationary video cameras help prevent vandalism of the 146 escalators and 45 lifts. However, the above-ground stations in the BOGESTRA network have no video surveillance. Data protection objections raised by the responsible authorities do not allow the company to monitor using video cameras; the reasons are that recordings could not be restricted to the area belonging to the company and it would not be possible to avoid collecting data of "innocent" passers-by. Concerns that employees, unions or politically legitimated data protection officers have about data protection are always justified and should be respected they should also be dispelled if necessary even without undertaking specific measures. For example, companies can dispel any concerns that labour representatives may have simply by means of "pixellation", which makes the drivers unrecognisable. The impact of equipping vehicles with video security systems is most impressive when seen in relation to the costs for removing vandalism damages. Average costs per vehicle and year were under 240 for videoequipped vehicles, as opposed to average costs of 620 for vehicles not yet monitored by video. Theft of vehicle inventory also declined in buses with video surveillance. The following cost blocks for video-protected and camera-free vehicles for the entire BOGESTRA bus fleet in 2006 were: With camera-free buses, total costs were approx. 2,260 for special defacements, approx. 5,550 for theft of inventory and 67,500 for damages due to vandalism, which is a total of just under 75,400. Buses with video security systems, however, have very different figures: in 2006 costs of almost 5,200 were incurred for special defacements, but only 3,250 for theft and just under 35,000 for damages due to
vandalism total damages for video-protected buses were more than a third less than for unprotected ones, although the latter did not even make up half of the fleet. Conclusion and outlook The use of video security solutions pays off from a number of perspectives. Many companies focus on increasing the subjective sense of passenger safety that results from the pre-emptive impact of video recordings. Particularly during night-time traffic and in vehicles that are not in clear view of the driver due to their length, video recording creates safety that otherwise can be achieved only with high personnel expense, e.g., through patrols. Video security systems also help contain the problem of increased vandalism and thus save companies repair and restoration costs for defaced seating, scratched windows or demolished transit stops. In resolving cases of damages and this applies to vandalism and violent criminals as well as to cases of liability - video security systems provide valuable information, and even pictures that help resolve the identity of offenders. Increasingly, companies will begin using existing security technology for applications that are not relevant to security: Our latest software will make it possible to automatically analyse images in the vehicle before they arrive at the company's central server. This enables application scenarios such as access control in the stationary area. Such systems will recognise if someone climbs over barriers and independently inform the control centre. They recognise abandoned suitcases and blocked emergency exits. It is only a matter of time before such systems will also be available for mobile applications. A system for counting passengers is also currently in development. The goal is to surpass the precision of previous counting systems (95 percent) presumably, we will have achieved that at least for the bus sector by early 2008 and begin marketing the systems. Investments in video recording and processing are thus more than just investments in the "perceived" safety of passengers or a means of fighting vandalism: They create the infrastructure for a new generation of services that fit seamlessly into the processes of public transit providers and, for example, can be used in operating transit networks or handling passenger movement.