Vertical Markets

Bus cameras praised

by Mark Rowe

The Metropolitan Police has praised a bus operator for the quality of the CCTV images supplied to them. The CCTV installed by 21st Century Technology gives images at such high resolution that facial features and other identifying details are clearly visible. Police report that half of images submitted to them, after requested as evidence, lead to suspects being recognised and identified by police or members of the public, making the task of securing a conviction much simpler.

Lynne Beale, Project Manager for Arriva UK Bus, says: “We produce many evidence packs a year and our technology enables us to isolate the exact piece of footage that we require. This means that we can provide this service without too much pressure on other operational services within Arriva.” She continues: “We are very proud of the working relationship that we have with the Metropolitan Police and as a result of our partnership our buses continue to be a safe and pleasant environment for passengers.”

The Met’s Roads and Transport Policing Command has reported that crime on the bus network fell by 5.7pc last year, the ninth consecutive year of a fall. The rate of crime for London’s buses is now at just 7.2 crimes per million passenger journeys. This marks a reduction of over 60pc since CCTV became compulsory on London’s buses. All Arriva’s buses in the capital, and across the country, have 21st Century Technology camera systems installed, with up to 16 cameras per vehicle.

Insp Richard Sorrell for Roads and Transport Policing Command says: “These cameras have made a huge difference to us in tackling crime on the network and will continue to do so. The standard of bus CCTV is so good that the police regard this as a major tool in their fight against crime on the buses. The total ID rate per circulation is around 50pc. The CCTV from the bus companies certainly greatly assists with any investigation.”

The Transport Data Retrieval Team (TDRT), featured in the September 2015 print issue of Professional Security magazine, and which was established in 2009, manages all police requests for CCTV evidence and handled 13,478 in 2015.

One appeal was to identify two suspected arsonists captured on camera. The two youths were spotted apparently attempting to set fire to an Arriva bus in September 2015. The images show the suspects, thought to be aged between 14 and 16, using lighters to set fire to four seats. Because of the high quality of the images police have already identified one of the suspects and are confident of identifying the second.

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