If you are a school bus driver and you have bus surveillance cameras, you know what a blessing they truly are. Equipment that is visible (whether it’s actually working or off) has an incredibly large deterrence factor. This doesn’t apply to just school buses but all kinds of buses and public transportation.
What is different on bus surveillance cameras than on regular surveillance cameras? First, the whole system is a bit different. Here is why.
A typical digital video surveillance system consists of one or more cameras, a Digital Video Recorder or DVR, and a monitor. The cameras capture the video images, process them and send them to the DVR where they are processed further and saved on the DVRs Hard Disk Drive (HDD). The HDD on a typical surveillance system is the same type of disk drive that is found on a personal computer. It can hold terabytes of information but doesn’t do well when under the forces of vibration.
Bus surveillance camera systems are a little different. First and foremost is the DVR. The vibrations for normal travel of the bus are libel to make the hard disk skip and not record the video images properly. Now there are many different types of bus surveillance systems and accordingly corresponding DVRs. However the one thing that bus surveillance camera systems have in common is that most of these systems use non-moving parts.
They are able to endure very harsh environments making them well suited for
high risk vehicle applications like school buses, law enforcement, EMS,
transit, taxi, service or delivery vehicles that require rugged solid state
dependability for video evidence.
Creating a system with non moving parts is important because of the vibrations that are created by the bus. The bus surveillance camera system must be able to work properly in spite of that factor. SO how do they do it? Most bust surveillance camera systems use a “no moving parts” SD recorder system. All of the footage is saved on the SD card and when it’s full you just pull that card and insert another one or re-write over the one that’s already in the DVR.
These SD cards can be removed and inserted into a computer to view or store any of the media that is on the card. The technology for creating these cards is constantly improving yielding greater and greater storage capacities. Today, they can easily place a 2 hour trip on one card.
Bus surveillance cameras come in many configurations as well. Some units are made with the camera, DVR, and monitor all in on piece. Other units allow for the DVR to be mounted somewhere on the bus while up to four different cameras can be used for more comprehensive coverage. Some of these multi camera systems are able to record all four cameras at once in D1 resolution. Furthermore these multi bus surveillance camera systems, because of the larger separate DVRs can have record times of 60 to 200 hours!
Another benefit of bus surveillance cameras is that not only can they record unsafe or dangerous activities of the passengers but they can also record unsafe or reckless driving activities of the bus driver offering dual protection. The following is a list of just some of the passenger activities that have been documented already on buses (school, public transportation, etc.):
- Civil or criminal violations of the law
- Drug use, sale, or distribution
- Gang related activities
- Vandalism such as cutting the seats, graffiti on bus surfaces
- Sexual acts with or without consent
- Throwing objects out the windows
- Assaults, abuse or other harassment against the bus driver
- Alcohol abuse or smoking while inside the bus
- Standing or walking in the bus while the bus itself is in motion.
As we mentioned earlier, bus surveillance cameras provide dual coverage because they can provide documentation of the activities of the passengers as well as the driver. Here’s a short list of driver related activities that have been documented:
- Running red lights or stop signs
- Failure to stop at railroad intersections
- Bus driver, while driving, is drinking, eating, sending text messages, or using their cell phone for casual conversation
- In vehicle driver passenger interaction, arguments, or abuse
- Accident can be documented with the video used in court as evidence
If you are interested in more information concerning bus surveillance cameras, contact one of Security Camera King’s security experts today.
