CCTV and Public Transit Officers

Canberra.
The next session at ANZCA 2010 starts with a paper presented by Christine Teague, on the impact of CCTV in public transport. She conducted an ethnographic research project examining - through participation in initial staff training, participant observation from the CCTV monitoring room (video only; no audio) and by directly working on track - the experiences of public transit officers (who have similar powers to the police on railway property, but not outside it).

CCTV cameras send their images back to a central control monitoring room, where operators follow the live feeds from stations, platforms, car parks, and other railway infrastructure. These cameras can be operated locally and remotely (including zooming and panning) - not all camera feeds are visible on the monitors at the same time. The cameras operate and record 24 hours a day.

Camera operators are required to undertake pre-employment psychological screening, to ensure they can cope with what they see - especially including suicides where people are jumping in front of oncoming trains, but also acts of violence. At times, they are required to help police by finding footage that may help in solving crimes (or check whether incident reports are actually true - at times, late at night, people will call for police assistance, claiming they are being harrassed, only to get a free ride home).

Transit officers have a difficult job: they start after 3 p.m. and work through the night, which is the most problematic time in the transit system: there are incidents with drunk and drugged passengers, and with youths who simply hang out at stations and in trains because they have problems at home. Anti-social behaviour during this time includes fare evasion, bad language, substance abuse, damage to property, and assaults against passengers and transit officers.

Transit officers may respond with infringement notices, which require the offender's name and address - these are checked (via the shift commander in the control room) with the police database, and from here, things can escalate if false names were given or details refused altogether. In some cases, it may be discovered that there are outstanding warrants, too. In some such cases, transit officers will attempt arrests, often resulting in scuffles.

Transit officers become involved where they witness offences, see them on CCTV, have their assistance requested by police, or where calls for assistance are made by members of the public. CCTV surveillance is usually set up before any action by the transit officers; this also goes for interviews of offenders, during which CCTV cameras are trained on the office. This generates evidence for court cases, and provides protection against countersuits; such footage can also be used for training purposes. Transit officers are very aware of this observation, and while no sound is recorded, they make very sure their actions are unambiguous and appropriate.

More recent advances in technology are also introducing more comprehensive monitoring, face recognition, and direct interconnection with police databases; intelligent scene monitoring systems can also be used to detect the emotional states of persons, and in Britain, unmanned aerial cameras are also increasingly being trialled. Criminals often plead guilty more easily when faced with CCTV footage; and while there are obvious civil liberties concerns about CCTV, it is also said to reassure the general public about their safety.

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