Metro Transit Police Department, part of Metro Transit in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota, is extending its investment in Verint Systems technology, standardizing key parts of its transportation technology platform with the company's VMS for the Central Corridor Light Rail Transit (CCLRT) Project. Moving from its legacy security and business systems to a unified approach, the VMS solution is helping the organization's Metro Transit Police force advance its ability to monitor and secure the Twin Cities' current and new light rail and commuter trains and passengers, as well as enhance investigation capabilities and increase response times.
Metro Transit is one of the country's largest transit systems, providing more than 80 million annual passenger trips throughout the Minneapolis/St. Paul region. It operates the Hiawatha light rail line, Northstar commuter rail line and 123 bus routes. Metro Transit employs its own sworn police force committed to the safety of its customers and employees, and serves eight counties and 85 cities in the region. Starting in 2010, it embarked on a four-year construction project to expand operations with an 11 mile line connecting downtown St. Paul and Minneapolis with existing lines. The initiative, known as the CCLRT, is adding 31 new light rail transit vehicles and 18 new stations.
Taking a proactive approach to security, the Metro Transit Police Department launched an initiative to standardize its transportation and security technology platform in conjunction with the CCLRT Project. Since 2009, Metro Transit has leveraged a wide array of Verint's security solutions to monitor portions of its operations—from its mobile fleet and light rail systems to its stations—and help migrate from analog to IP-based video. Based on past experiences using Verint solutions and the technology's open architecture platform, Metro Transit selected the VMS to help achieve the objectives of the CCLRT standardization initiative. Taking a phased approach to implementation, the organization began its rollout in September 2012.
"We look forward to experiencing the additional benefits that this next-generation of VMS will bring to even more members of our organization,” said Brian Weaver, Senior Asset Protection specialist, Metro Transit Police Department.
The VMS offers policy-based video distribution; networked video viewing and investigation management to help security staff rapidly detect, act upon and investigate security breaches and other threats. At Metro Transit, the VMS solution is capturing video from hundreds of cameras and providing the organization with a fully redundant solution to monitor its new urban mass-transit system.