New Video Surveillance Center Helps Crime-Fighting Efforts in Washington

New Video Surveillance Center Helps Crime-Fighting Efforts in Washington

  • By Sydny Shepard
  • Feb 11, 2016

The nation’s capital can feel a little safer now when traveling about the city. A new security operations control center (SOCC) is proving extremely useful to the Metro Transit Police Department in solving crime across the public transportation system.

Inside the $3.6 million SOCC is security camera footage from the system’s busiest platforms is displayed on massive screens on the front wall. Flat-screen televisions cycle through a list of faces for whom MTPD are on the lookout for. In a higher area overlooking the floor, dispatchers and call takers log emergency complaints and text tips and feed them to the officers in the system.

The transit system has been under scrutiny because of an increased amount of brazen attacks committed by groups of teenagers. For example, six high school students were recently arrested in connection with an attack that delayed morning rush-hour trains. One of the teenagers reportedly struck a 35-year-old man while he was getting off of the train, resulting in a small brawl before the teenagers rush onto the train just before the doors close. Surveillance footage was able to help the police pinpoint the location of the teenagers and help them to verify who they were.

The control center allows transit police to act quickly when incidents occur. The Digital Video Evidence Unit has processed more than 6,200 requests for footage last year, drawing from thousands of security cameras placed inside and outside Metro’s 91 stations.

The control center’s capabilities were offered before, but not all in the same room. Whereas previously Metro’s call takers, dispatchers, detectives and video technicians were housed separately, now the groups are able to seamlessly communicate with one another. This process saves time and ultimately leads to more arrests.

About the Author

Sydny Shepard is the Executive Editor of Campus Security & Life Safety.

Featured

  • Report: 47 Percent of Security Service Providers Are Not Yet Using AI or Automation Tools

    Trackforce, a provider of security workforce management platforms, today announced the launch of its 2025 Physical Security Operations Benchmark Report, an industry-first study that benchmarks both private security service providers and corporate security teams side by side. Based on a survey of over 300 security professionals across the globe, the report provides a comprehensive look at the state of physical security operations. Read Now

    • Guard Services

  • Identity Governance at the Crossroads of Complexity and Scale

    Modern enterprises are grappling with an increasing number of identities, both human and machine, across an ever-growing number of systems. They must also deal with increased operational demands, including faster onboarding, more scalable models, and tighter security enforcement. Navigating these ever-growing challenges with speed and accuracy requires a new approach to identity governance that is built for the future enterprise. Read Now

  • Eagle Eye Networks Launches AI Camera Gun Detection

    Eagle Eye Networks, a provider of cloud video surveillance, recently introduced Eagle Eye Gun Detection, a new layer of protection for schools and businesses that works with existing security cameras and infrastructure. Eagle Eye Networks is the first to build gun detection into its platform. Read Now

  • Report: AI is Supercharging Old-School Cybercriminal Tactics

    AI isn’t just transforming how we work. It’s reshaping how cybercriminals attack, with threat actors exploiting AI to mass produce malicious code loaders, steal browser credentials and accelerate cloud attacks, according to a new report from Elastic. Read Now

  • Pragmatism, Productivity, and the Push for Accountability in 2025-2026

    Every year, the security industry debates whether artificial intelligence is a disruption, an enabler, or a distraction. By 2025, that conversation matured, where AI became a working dimension in physical identity and access management (PIAM) programs. Observations from 2025 highlight this turning point in AI’s role in access control and define how security leaders are being distinguished based on how they apply it. Read Now

Most   Popular

New Products

  • Camden CV-7600 High Security Card Readers

    Camden CV-7600 High Security Card Readers

    Camden Door Controls has relaunched its CV-7600 card readers in response to growing market demand for a more secure alternative to standard proximity credentials that can be easily cloned. CV-7600 readers support MIFARE DESFire EV1 & EV2 encryption technology credentials, making them virtually clone-proof and highly secure.

  • Luma x20

    Luma x20

    Snap One has announced its popular Luma x20 family of surveillance products now offers even greater security and privacy for home and business owners across the globe by giving them full control over integrators’ system access to view live and recorded video. According to Snap One Product Manager Derek Webb, the new “customer handoff” feature provides enhanced user control after initial installation, allowing the owners to have total privacy while also making it easy to reinstate integrator access when maintenance or assistance is required. This new feature is now available to all Luma x20 users globally. “The Luma x20 family of surveillance solutions provides excellent image and audio capture, and with the new customer handoff feature, it now offers absolute privacy for camera feeds and recordings,” Webb said. “With notifications and integrator access controlled through the powerful OvrC remote system management platform, it’s easy for integrators to give their clients full control of their footage and then to get temporary access from the client for any troubleshooting needs.”

  • QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC)

    QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC)

    The latest Qualcomm® Vision Intelligence Platform offers next-generation smart camera IoT solutions to improve safety and security across enterprises, cities and spaces. The Vision Intelligence Platform was expanded in March 2022 with the introduction of the QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC), which delivers superior artificial intelligence (AI) inferencing at the edge.