AVTA BUSES TO BE FITTED WITH CAMERAS VISUAL, AUDIO RECORDS KEPT.

Byline: Peggy Hager Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Antelope Valley Transit Authority buses are getting automated digital security cameras that watch the driver, passengers, wheelchair lift and the view out the front window.

The $500,000 system, installed by Texas-based Safety Vision, does not provide live coverage of buses but gives bus officials and law-enforcement officers a visual record of confrontations between passengers or between passengers and drivers.

``This allows for security of the passengers as well as the driver,'' said Bill Budlong, executive director of the AVTA. ``We haven't had any increasing problems, but we do from time to time have problems. ... We just don't want to start tolerating it and living with it. So we're trying to do something to prevent it.''

Awareness that their actions are being recorded may deter troublemakers, as well as reassure other passengers, Budlong said.

AVTA's 71-vehicle fleet carries 2 1/2 million passengers a year, officials said.

Each bus will get three or four cameras that turn on whenever the engine starts. The system also records the operation of the turn signals, brakes and headlights.

A microphone near the driver records sound.

``It's been determined by everyone that has used this system so far that all confrontations take place with the driver and the passenger right at the front door when they're getting on the bus, so that's the most critical place for it,'' said Tom Conlon, operations manager.

The digital camera and audio signals are routed to a hard drive on the bus. The video takes color images in time-lapse format with two frames per second. Audio is recorded in real time.

Once the hard drives are full, the data will be transferred to DVDs - about 250 a year for each bus - to be kept in a climate-controlled storage facility the company most likely will rent.

The data will be maintained for a year, the limit for filing a complaint or lawsuit against the company.

``If we maintain the records for a year, then we're covered for whatever happens,'' said Budlong.

Twenty-two buses of AVTA's 71-vehicle fleet already had black-and-white security cameras. These will be integrated with the new digital color cameras on all the vehicles.

Six new buses expected to arrive in late May or early June will be equipped with cameras at the factory.

``This is a part of (AVTA's) technology movement. AVTA is doing a very good job of taking all of these types of technology and working them together for a very complete system,'' said Conlon.

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Photo:

Ron Cunningham, finance manager at A.V. Transit Authority, sits by a digital security camera, upper right, in the middle of an AVTA bus. Each bus will be outfitted with 3 or 4 cameras.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer