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Case Study: Surveillance Cameras at Secaucus Junction

New Jersey Transit's new station finds other benefits in its security cameras

From its light-filled atrium and waiting area, to the commissioned murals inspired by its marshlike setting, to the Art Deco flourishes on its wall sconces and oak benches, New Jersey Transit's Secaucus Junction is a marvel. The airy new station of stone, glass and steel harks back to the days when train stations were not merely utilitarian but also monuments to travel. Yet it has one decidedly modern architectural element: a network of more than 220 video surveillance cameras that collectively record and analyze the goings-on in nearly every inch of its 312,000 square feet.

The cameras are a sign of the times. As probably the largest new train station completed in the United States since the terrorist attacks of 2001, Secaucus Junction opened its doors in 2003 to a world where train stations had come to be seen as targets not only for pickpockets but also for terrorists. Attacks on the transit systems in Madrid and London have made this vulnerability painfully clear. The Secaucus Junction station may have a low profile nationally, but it provides a crucial link to New Jersey's transportation infrastructure, connecting bus routes and 10 of the state's 11 commuter train lines. Tens of thousands of passengers ride through the station each day, most of them on their way to the crowded New York Penn Station, a 15-minute ride away.

But this is not a story about New Jersey Transit's efforts at crime prevention, or counterterrorism, or evenwhen it comes right down to itsecurity. This is a story about surveillance in its broadest sense. What officials at New Jersey Transit discovered at Secaucus Junction is that the real business case for good surveillance isn't in security at all. Instead, the benefit comes from keeping watch over transit systems for other purposes, like business operations and customer service. Security is only a starting point.

"It's not [a question of], 'OK, we're going to put this camera there because of this return on investment,'" says Michael Slack, CTO of New Jersey Transit, which is the nation's largest statewide public transportation system. "It's a question of, 'How do I take [the video from the cameras] and make it sharable?' That's where the benefit is."

Joseph Bober, New Jersey Transit's chief of police, puts it even more bluntly: "When we're spending this type of money," he says, "we want to get the biggest bang for our buck."

A Whole Lot of Lenses

While airports across the country have focused on locking down access with ever-increasing security at their entrance points, the nation's train stations have had to take a different approach. "The system is by nature, and cannot be changed from, an open and accessible system," says Chris Kozub, associate director of the National Transit Institute, a federally funded training institute at Rutgers University. Like others who focus on transit security, Kozub is fond of pointing out that more people pass through New York Penn Station in one morning's peak period than pass through Chicago O'Hare International Airport in two and a half days. "Introducing any kind of airport-type technology into the system would basically shut the system down," he says.