Riders of RTD’s southeast light-rail line will have 227 surveillance cameras trained on them.
It’s not voyeurism. It’s for their own safety and security, Regional Transportation District officials say.
Crime has been an issue for RTD, especially at some park-n-Rides, where riders occasionally return to find broken glass from a vehicle break-in.
RTD officials say they are doing all they can to make the new transit line that opens Friday – and their entire system – safe.
At the 13 stations on the southeast line, fixed and movable zoom cameras will monitor train platforms, pedestrian bridges, tunnels, elevators, stairwells and each floor of RTD-owned parking garages, said David Genova, the agency’s manager of public safety.
Video monitoring by security officers will occur during nearly all of the rail line’s operating hours, he said. The system also will store video images.
Numerous emergency telephones that ring 911 operators at the push of a button are on train platforms, tunnels, elevators and pedestrian bridges.
Live cameras allow security officers in RTD’s video command center to get crisp, close-up images, said RTD security-systems administrator Michael Sinclair.
Longtime RTD bus rider Maurine Geddie now takes the 90X express bus from the RTD’s Nine Mile park-n-Ride to get to her job in downtown Denver.
Beginning Sunday, 90X service will be eliminated, so on Monday, Geddie will take the southeast train downtown, meaning a longer walk from the parking garage to the train platform.
“I want to be sure of the safety precautions,” Geddie said. “I now go to work in the dark, and for six months I’m coming home in the dark.”
“We’re doing crime prevention through environmental design,” Genova said, noting well-lighted, clear-walled stairwells and elevators on the new rail line.
The goal was “wide open spaces with lots of light,” Sinclair said, adding that the Nine Mile stop already has 25 cameras.
Benches on rail platforms have been designed with colorful see-through windscreens and “anti-sleep rails” that prevent people from lurking out of sight or camping on platforms.
RTD’s security program also includes roving patrols by uniformed guards and explosive-resistant trash receptacles.
To demonstrate RTD’s camera capabilities, security officer Chris Peterson, at the agency’s video command center, zoomed in with a camera Monday to read the VIN number on the dash of a car in an RTD lot.
Peterson and Richard Herrera, another officer, sat at consoles and had at least a dozen video monitors in front of them.
Herrera pulled up images for the Arapahoe park-n-Ride on one screen and manipulated a joystick to zoom in on a live view of the parking-lot stairwell.
RTD’s existing rail system has 78 live surveillance cameras at the Mineral, downtown Littleton, Interstate 25/Broadway and Alameda stations.
RTD’s video “has been a very significant assistance to us” in “capturing criminal events,” said Denver police Sgt. Ernie Martinez.
For the first nine months of this year, RTD forwarded video evidence to assist local police in 67 cases, Sinclair said.
“Good quality video” has helped Denver officers arrest people on site and has identified others who flee, Martinez said.
Staff writer Jeffrey Leib can be reached at 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com.
