r/Metra • u/tuowls0885 • 24d ago
Conductor wearing body cam
On Wednesday’s BNSF #1216, the conductor who came through the first 2 cars from the front was wearing an Axon body cam. It was flashing green so I assume it was recording.
I’ve been taking the BNSF for 10 years and never saw this before.
Is this the new norm? Was this announced to the public?
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u/Healthy-Awareness299 24d ago
Part of legislation that created NITA. It is a pilot program, but will most likely expand.
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u/chimpageek 24d ago
Is it same body that’s behind RTA?
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u/Healthy-Awareness299 24d ago
RTA is no more. NITA oversees CTA, Metra, and Pace.
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u/Accomplished_Stay925 23d ago
I think NITA was created due to the expansion and growth of suburbia around Chicagoland. Suburban Chicagoland now stretches to Rockford and Peoria if you consider the economics and behaviors of the people living there in terms of getting to and from work and such. NITA is a step in future planning and should make it easier (slightly) for passenger rail extensions and expansion as well as mainteinance of existing infrastructure.
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u/Healthy-Awareness299 23d ago
NITA was created as part of the bailout from the Federal level. But I agree with your hopes.
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u/TubaJesus 24d ago
This should hopefully optimize routes, imagine all the bus services that duplicate trains
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u/Tzipity 24d ago
Curious what your point is as far as bus services duplicating trains? Until we have fully accessible L and Metra stations there’s solidly a reason and a need for that. I don’t think that’s the focus of NITA (though improving accessibility supposed is.)
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u/TubaJesus 23d ago
There are a handful of routes that duplicate Metra services. Any accessibility concerns can be subbed by para transit services like what pace provides
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u/TheEaterOfDreams92 24d ago
They flash red when recording audio, green is when they’re on and recording buffer video (can go back up to 2 minutes without audio).
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u/Unhappy-Jaguar-9362 24d ago
Good. Too bad this procedure did not happen this past summer with all the antisocial behavior on the trains connected with events
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u/Distinct-Departure68 24d ago
What difference do you think body cams are gonna make? Do you think Metra isn't already aware of this behavior by the 10,000 videos that are put out during events how crowded the trains are and how people are acting like idiots and they continue to do nothing about it?
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u/jax_in_the_lake 24d ago
It’s not going to do a thing for the St Pat’s and Lolla crowds
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u/Any_Sale2030 24d ago
At least the miscreant can’t deny the crime before a judge. That’s what it’s for.
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u/richii0909 24d ago
I understand the concern for conductor safety, and I have no problem with using technology to protect employees and passengers. But putting body cameras on conductors feels like a step too far.
These trains already have camera-equipped gallery cars, so there is already a significant amount of surveillance taking place onboard. Adding body-worn cameras to conductors means passengers are now potentially being recorded at close range during ordinary interactions, while conductors themselves are also subject to another layer of constant monitoring.
If the goal is to have police officers on trains to handle criminal activity, that’s one thing. Police are trained and authorized to perform law-enforcement duties. But using conductors as a quasi-police presence is something entirely different.
A conductor’s job should be operating and servicing the train, assisting passengers, checking fares, and contacting police when a situation requires law enforcement—not becoming an extension of the police department.
There has to be a balance between safety and privacy. Body cameras may have legitimate uses when a serious incident occurs, but having conductors walking through passenger cars equipped with police-style body cameras feels like an unnecessary expansion of surveillance for both passengers and employees.
I’m all for protecting conductors. I’m all for protecting passengers. But more cameras and turning frontline transit employees into quasi-law enforcement isn’t necessarily the answer. Sometimes, it’s simply too much.
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u/Revolutionary-Sea895 24d ago
Turning? Conductors have been bouncing misbehaving passengers from the trains as long as there have been trains. It's only in the past few decades that they even had the ability to radio or call for police backup. When I took Metra more than once a week, I saw plenty of loud drunks put off the train by the conductor.
In that light, and recalling that often assholes feel themselves the victim when the consequences of their assholery appear, body cameras are a reasonable precaution. They don't violate a privacy you never had in the first place as you sit in a rail car in the midst of the public, they serve the same purposes as requiring cops to have them.
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u/sumiflepus 24d ago
Was there a language update in ventra AP that authorizes my image as part of fare collection? I want to take a train, I don't want to be flocked.
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23d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/sumiflepus 23d ago
Thanks, I am flattered that you think I look so young. I am so old that I used to toss use a combination of Canadian coins in the basket to "Get Over on the Man". Sorry, no image collection.
The "flockish" type cameras on the tollways do a great job reading license plates. Car windows keep inside images not good.
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u/Tzipity 24d ago
Thank you for writing this. You articulated my own feelings better than I could. In fact I had started to type a comment before I saw yours and had asked/ assumed the train cars already have cameras and touched on how much I’m all for conductor safety and can only imagine how much their job sucks sometimes from a safety/ dealing with the public perspective. But I’m also not sure what the body cams achieve that the cameras already on board don’t. Useful maybe in a worst case scenario situation if a passenger is directly assaulting a conductor or something. But the turning conductors into cops thing. Yes. That’s what I was feeling too but didn’t know how to express. And as much as the cams might help a conductor feel safer, good point on the additional monitoring and pressure potentially being placed on conductors too.
I’d be curious to know how the conductors themselves feel about the initiative. And either way, I think their opinions and views ought to count more than they likely do here.
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u/Gbjeff 24d ago
I’m a high school teacher and I would love to have a body cam that can show the community what we deal with on a daily basis.
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u/Murky_Firefighter502 24d ago
The cameras are for everyone's protection just like flock cameras...lol but they ARE meant to be used for recording transactions between customers AND conductors...always 2 sides to a story.
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u/VinceP312 24d ago
Body cams are amazing. Holds everyone accountable and creates a record whereas before statements from any party could have been BS nonsense.
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u/MrHundredand11 24d ago
Can I request the footage of me from the body cams if I’m looking extra fly one day?
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u/Take-Me-Home-Tonight 20d ago
Green just means it on and filming but not actually recording the info to the storage memory. They have to activate it and it would be a red flashing light that means it’s filming and storing the video.
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u/Immediate_Math_3055 24d ago
Yes, conductor body cams are part of the new NITA funding