City to Get New Buses, Bus Surveillance Cameras

Elk Grove residents could soon notice something different when riding e-tran around town: surveillance cameras.

The Elk Grove City Council last week gave the OK to use state bond funding to buy video cameras for its buses, as well as three new buses and the refurbishing of a dozen buses the city purchased from Georgia.

Most of the money has already been awarded to the city, but hasn't been received yet–that timing depends on the sale of state bonds, according to a staff report.

The three new buses will cost $1.5 million, refurbishing the buses from Georgia will cost $800,000, and the video cameras will cost $190,000. The projects could be purchased in summer of 2014 and be on the road by the next year.

"These cameras will allow the City to record events on board transit buses to assist the review of criminal or safety matters," the staff report states. "Currently, the fleet does not have the ability to monitor on-board events beyond the  few seconds that are recorded during collisions by the drive cameras currently installed."

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How do you feel about the idea of having surveillance cameras on e-tran buses? Tell us in the comments section below.

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