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TTC Cameras Ineffective: Advocacy Group By Shannon Montgomery 7/18/05 |
TORONTO — The
security cameras monitoring Canada's largest urban transit system don't measure up to those used to spot the culprits in the London transit bombings and would offer little help in a similar situation here, a public transportation advocacy group said Thursday.
Many of the
CCTV cameras used by the
Toronto Transit Commission to monitor the city's subway lines are outdated and lack the quality necessary to identify a suspect were a terrorist attack to occur, said Dan Hammond, President of the group Transport 2000 Ontario.
"The TTC basically needs to update their security systems and to update their security procedures," Hammond said.
More staff with proper security training is also needed to monitor cameras, many of which do little more than broadcast images of the subway platform into the ticket booths, he added.
"Other transit systems in Canada have proper centralized security systems and proper security officers monitoring the
close-circuit system."
Security cameras blanket the streets of London, capturing almost every move people make. While criticized as being too invasive, the city's 6,000 subway cameras helped police identify those who took part in the suicide bombings that killed at least 53 people last Thursday.
Subway cars in Toronto slowed to a halt for two minutes Thursday morning as part of an international moment of silence to commemorate the victims of the London bombings.
Hammond, whose group is part of a Canada-wide network of Transport 2000 groups, said the TTC's
camera systems lag well behind the technology used in other big cities, most notably Calgary's high-tech digital monitoring system.
"The most modern system will have
digital recording as opposed to tape, which Calgary does have," he said. Digital technology provides a high-quality recording that can be saved on a computer, making the images easier to monitor and handle.
Hammond said Vancouver's SkyTrain light-rail transit system is also very up to date, with dedicated staff to monitor the cameras. Montreal's system would "fall somewhere between Toronto and Calgary," he said. Source: canada.com |
