2014 Digital Yearbook of Homeland Security Awards
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GSN <strong>2014</strong> <strong>Digital</strong> <strong>Yearbook</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Homeland</strong> <strong>Security</strong> <strong>Awards</strong> Recipients<br />
Government Agency <strong>Awards</strong><br />
Denver Regional Transportation<br />
District – <strong>2014</strong> Silver Winner<br />
<strong>Awards</strong> Category:<br />
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––<br />
Most Notable Railroad/Mass Transit <strong>Security</strong> Program<br />
Name <strong>of</strong> Nominated Product, Service,<br />
or Program:<br />
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––<br />
Denver RTD Mobile Video Surveillance Initiative<br />
Reason this entry deserves to win:<br />
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––<br />
The Denver Regional Transportation District (RTD)<br />
operates almost 1,100 buses, traveling over 100,000<br />
miles and serving an average <strong>of</strong> 330,000 passengers each<br />
day. To help keep passengers and operators safe, RTD<br />
Transit Police rely on mobile video cameras installed<br />
on RTD’s bus fleet. Video is a vital tool for investigating<br />
crime, claims, ADA complaints and other incidents that<br />
occur in transit.<br />
Unfortunately, RTD’s older analog video system had a<br />
30% failure rate. Even when the cameras were working,<br />
poor quality video sometimes made it difficult to reliably<br />
identify people or understand what really happened.<br />
The cameras also recorded to an analog digital video<br />
recorder (DVR) on the bus. This meant that every time<br />
video was needed for an investigation, a technician<br />
would need to drive to the assigned bus division and<br />
pull the hard drive to physically retrieve video.<br />
Given that RTD does thousands <strong>of</strong> investigations annually,<br />
this was a significant problem. Working with partners<br />
NICE Systems and Panasonic, RTD came up with an<br />
innovative solution. The result was a high-quality digital<br />
video system that enabled RTD to download video wirelessly<br />
<strong>of</strong>f a bus, so investigators could access it without<br />
leaving their desks. The first<br />
<strong>of</strong> a kind mobile video surveillance<br />
solution uses NiceVision<br />
s<strong>of</strong>tware. The NICE s<strong>of</strong>tware<br />
runs on hardware from Panasonic<br />
Corporation and includes<br />
specialty cameras and<br />
a mobile recording platform<br />
specially designed to withstand<br />
vibration and weather<br />
extremes.<br />
RTD has already retr<strong>of</strong>itted<br />
250 new buses, and over the<br />
course <strong>of</strong> the next three years,<br />
plans to retr<strong>of</strong>it about 800<br />
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