NICE News Special Edition - Volume 2, Issue 3

	UPDATE FROM JIM PARK SAN FRANCISCO ECD NICE IN THE NEWS NICE MARKS 20^TH ANNIVERSARY MARION COUNTY LAST MESSAGE REPLAY^TM SECAUCUS JUNCTION TELECOMMUNICATOR OF THE YEAR APRIL NUG TOPIC: REDUNDANCY QUICK SURVEY SEE NICE...




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SECAUCUS JUNCTION ENHANCES SECURITY, SERVICE WITH NICE

Even four years after 9/11, public transit systems in the US remain, for the most part, unprotected. But not the New Jersey transit system. The Secaucus Junction, located between New York Penn Station and Newark Penn Station in Secaucus, New Jersey, is the United States' largest statewide public transportation system providing more than 750,000 daily trips on 240 bus routes, two light rail lines and 11 commuter rail lines. The station and supporting infrastructure are built above three active rail lines, including the electrified Northeast Corridor - one of the busiest rail corridors in the world.

With 312,000 square feet and 5,000 commuters on an average weekday, Secaucus Junction needs to ensure the safety of millions of commuters annually. Toward that end, the New Jersey Transit authority recently deployed a next generation security solution from NICE. The NICE solution offers simultaneous advanced video content analytics on a large number of cameras, allowing security personnel to identify risks in real time, make decisions, and take action to improve security. The NICE solution is integrated with checkpoint X-ray and related equipment, access control and many other security systems to ensure prompt threat detection and identification.

The solution from NICE employs intelligent video analysis which can automatically count customers, detect dropped bags, track intruders in secure areas (such as tunnels), monitor cars stopping in no-parking areas, and detect unusually large crowds that might indicate some kind of problem. It can also automatically trigger an announcement on the public-address system that parking is not allowed in the area, and send alerts to a pager, cell phone or wireless PDA of an onsite officer, who can then investigate the situation, and either have the car moved or override the alert if the idling vehicle is a police car.

Last September, during the Republican National Convention in New York City, the NICE solution helped prevent an entire station from being evacuated. Transit police were able to quickly retrace a video recording and determine that a person who had dropped a bag was not a threat, but rather a forgetful employee.

"As the nation's largest statewide public transportation system we are responsible for the efficient and safe transportation of millions of commuters," said Michael K. Slack, deputy chief information officer, New Jersey Transit. "We are utilizing the NICE solution as an information asset to monitor, manage and impart safety throughout the entire enterprise."

Officials at New Jersey Transit have discovered that Secaucus Junction security solutions from NICE offer other business and customer service benefits as well. For example, if a passenger complains that the last train of the night blazed by, customer service can view the video of the tracks just after midnight and see whether the train did indeed fail to stop. Or, if a passenger complains that a ticket booth operator was belligerent, customer service can pull up the video of the transaction. The maintenance crew can even review the video after a major storm to see how much snow has accumulated on the tracks.

The solution from NICE has reduced liability for the transit operator too. When the Portal Bridge near the Secaucus Junction station caught fire, disrupting service for the entire Northeast corridor, Joseph Bober, New Jersey Transit's chief of police says he was able to prove that New Jersey Transit was not responsible. (Amtrak owns the bridge, but New Jersey Transit uses it.) "We were able to go back to the digital recordings and substantiate how the bridge caught fire," Bober says. "If we wouldn't have had this system on site, New Jersey Transit more than likely would have been liable."

Going forward, the Secaucus Junction station is serving as a model for future deployments at New Jersey Transit and other projects that aim to deliver insight from interactions to help large city centers protect their mass transit systems.

"New Jersey Transit has been a business that has continued to increase services - more trains, more trips" - without adding to its staff, explains Bober. "We put in so many technologies over the years because we couldn't have all the eyes. Now you take that single eye - the camera - and share it with everybody, and it's very valuable."

Learn more about NICE Systems' solutions for digital video recording and intelligent content analysis. Visit www.nice.com/products/video/nicevision_about.php.