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Amtran to add audio to security cameras

Change based on two recent court cases

Amtran plans to activate audio recording on its security cameras for buses, after years of delay over worries about violating the state’s wiretap law.

Management plans to discuss the proposed change with union members, then introduce the policy next month for the board to consider, General Manager Eric Wolf said Wednesday.

The proposed change is based on two recent court cases, said Jon Higgins of Beard Legal Group, Amtran’s solicitor firm.

In one, involving an arrest, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that audio in a police cruiser and on an officer’s body camera didn’t violate the law because neither party had the right to expect privacy — the officer because he knew about the recordings and the arrestee, because the arrest took place in public, Higgins said.

In the other case, a federal judge from Nevada ruled, despite objections from a drivers’ union, that audio on buses was permissible because conversations on public buses are not private — especially given warning signs on the buses about surveillance, according to Higgins and an Associated Press story from last month.

Wolf asked Higgins to research the issue recently, when he heard about the new cases from a colleague, he said after the meeting.

While surveillance on buses may smack of “big brother,” it more often gets drivers “out of trouble than it gets them into trouble,” Wolf told the board.

Once a rider was complaining on the phone to then-Transportation Manager Maureen Gilbert about a driver, Wolf said.

After the caller finished her rant, Gilbert said something like, “OK, we’ll take a look at the surveillance video,” Wolf said.

In an instant, Gilbert was listening to a dial tone, after the caller realized that her story wouldn’t hold up, he said.

Video can sometimes be enough to show the nature of an incident but adding audio will help, Wolf said.

Many other transit authorities have been using audio for years, he said.

If the policy is adopted next month, Amtran would revise the signs on its buses that already alert riders to video surveillance.

Amtran is frequently on the leading edge of trends, but in this case, it was better to be one of the trailers, said board member Bob Reifsteck.

Amtran turned on the audio in its tripper buses in 2014 after a state law specifically authorized it for school transit.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.

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