Starting Jan. 16, all Lethbridge Transit vehicles, including school buses used to transport Lethbridge School District No. 51 students, will operate video surveillance cameras to help monitor accidents and incidents.
Transit video surveillance is considered to be industry standard and common in most urban centres. The City of Lethbridge has worked diligently to ensure the new system adheres to all Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and Regulations (FOIP), as well as the City of Lethbridge surveillance policy.
All Transit vehicles will be equipped with surveillance cameras on both the inside and outside, which will begin recording whenever the bus is started. Each day, the information is recorded to the secure, on-board digital video recorder (DVR). When the bus returns to the Transit building, the recording is automatically transferred wirelessly to a secure server. This data is kept for one month and will only be reviewed by authorized City personnel in the case of an accident or incident.
Any requests for release of this data will be handled in accordance with FOIP. There will be no live monitoring of the cameras.
All buses will have signage notifying riders of the video surveillance.
According to the city, this new safety feature is expected to reduce crime and vandalism, and will also help identify issues that can be proactively addressed to protect the safety and wellbeing of students, as well as Transit staff.
