The pilot program will begin in mid-December and will allow CTA buses to transmit live video to Chicago Police Department Public Transportation cars and CTA supervisory vehicles. The system will provide CTA with a real-time viewing of buses and rail stations, allowing emergency personnel to respond to incidents quickly and with the right equipment.
IBM is providing design, development and technology integration services for the project.
Specifically, 40 buses will be equipped with the system. In addition, 13 transit police vehicles, CTA's Incident Command bus, CTA supervisory vehicles, select rail stations and two bus garages will be outfitted with the technology as part of the pilot program.
Using wireless transmitters connected to the existing security cameras located on buses, the CTA will be able to send images to nearby vehicles equipped with receivers and monitors. Personnel in the vehicles will be able to view activity occurring on the bus or at the rail station as it happens. The images also can be transmitted to the CTA Control Center for viewing via the CTA's existing fiber optic communications network.
CTA is testing the mobile security network for a six-month period. The network is designed to assist emergency personnel in assessing a situation more quickly and provide CTA operators with information on the flow of customer traffic and service levels.
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Photo of Chicago Transit by Tammy Green. Creative Commons License Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0
