Metro is making a major push to install cameras throughout the system in an effort toimprove passenger safety.
The transit agency is planning to install crime cameras at 10 Metro station entrances in the District of Columbia, apply for federal grants to install “smart cameras” throughout the system, and install 19 more cameras in its parking lots to bring the total to 32.
The cameras at the station entrances are being installed at the city’s request.
The District’s proposed fiscal 2009 budget includes $200,000 to install cameras at the station entrances next year, D.C. Councilman and Metro board member Jim Graham said.
“I’m a big believer that cameras can help prevent crime and they can help solve crime if they’re good cameras and if they’re properly used,” Graham said.
The west entrance at the U Street/Cardozo station is the only one in the system with a crime camera.
That camera was installed in November 2006 as part of a pilot program sponsored by Graham in an effort to curb the high crime rate in the area.
The camera, which is powerful enough to identify people 150 feet away, is monitored only occasionally by the station manager, but has been successful in deterring crime near the station entrance, Metro officials said.
“Since the installation of this camera, we have experienced a consistently low level of reported crime,” Metro Transit Police Chief Michael Taborn said.
There has been only one assault reported there this year, which ended in an arrest, Taborn said.
Thetransit agency also is planning to apply for federal grants to install “smart cameras,” which use computers to detect irregular activity on the cameras, such as when a car has been parked in the same spot for too long or if a package has not moved.
The system currently has 1,041 cameras.
