Live monitoring now included on RTD bus cameras

DENVER ( KDVR ) – The Regional Transportation District is starting to put up “live look-in equipment” that allows public safety dispatchers to see and hear on the buses during emergencies.

RTD started installing the live look-in equipment in 2023 to track and record all incidents, according to the RTD. As of Tuesday, 19% of the buses have the live look-in capability for the operator and customers’ safety.

“There’s nothing like a dispatcher looking at the live look-in and explaining over the radio and describing the suspect, who and where he left, what station, what location,” Israel Laufer, the department’s Integrated Security Systems Program Manager said in a press release. “The operator is busy driving the bus, and the live look-in system relieves the operator from focusing on a precise description: Was he wearing a red vest, a baseball hat, a black shirt?”

The RTD is still in the process of putting up live look-ins, which should be finished by June 2027.

This is one of many safety measures the RTD has taken in the past year.

In 2023, there were 13,938 calls for service plus a lot of complaints from riders and employees. In response, the RTD said it’s expanding to over 100 officers . It also just upgraded its lights and landscaping, added closed-circuit television monitors with security feeds and installed smoke detectors in public restrooms, all to improve safety for riders and operators.

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