RTA expects to spend up to $2.7 million on the system, which will cover all its standard buses and Project Mobility buses that provide door-to-door service for the disabled. Most of the funding is from federal grants.
With nine million riders annually, RTA doesn’t consider crime a large problem but wants to reduce the instances that do occur.
In 2014, there were 85 reports of disorderly conduct and 53 reports of the same this year to date. In 2014 RTA had 54 reports of vandalism compared to 44 this year-to-date.
“We think our buses are safe,” said RTA spokeswoman Jessica Heffner. “But our new camera system will allow Dayton Police instant access.”
Currently, the camera system aboard buses requires the bus to be taken out of service before the images can be retrieved. The new system will use Wi-Fi to transmit images to a central location at RTA. The images will be clearer than the current system allows. Passengers won’t notice any difference. The system provides multiple views of the bus interior.
More Dayton police officers will be riding, too. Some could be in uniform and some in plain clothes. They’ll be placed randomly on bus routes so it shouldn’t be obvious to passengers who they are.
On Wednesday, a passenger reported an armed robbery when a gunman sitting in the rear of a bus sat down next to him, stuck a small caliber semiautomatic handgun in his ribs, and stole headphones, a cellphone and other property.
The robber left the bus at Kipling Drive and Harvard Boulevard in Dayton. Heffner said it was the only robbery this year aboard a bus. The suspect is described as a white man about 6-foot-2 inches tall, about 175 pounds wearing a red ball cap, a red-and-white jacket and denim jeans. An arrest has yet to be made.
Earlier this year, RTA buses were struck by pellets fired from pellet guns. Police have arrested, and RTA has agreed to prosecute, about six individuals so far, Heffner said.
Carmen Threats, 30, is a regular bus rider along with her 13-year-old daughter, taking the bus four times a day to appointments and to her job. “”We need more protection,” she said at Wright Plaza downtown waiting to board her bus. “You don’t have to be living the wrong lifestyle to be a victim these days.”
Angela Brown, 60, also waiting to get aboard her bus, agreed. “It would help get more people to ride RTA downtown and visit part of the city,” she said.
Another upgrade is in the works too. That’s a GPS system on each bus that will allow riders using a smart phone App to track the progress of the bus on its route. That will be installed in 2016.
About the Author