02/26/2002 Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

RTA was to provide a cut sheet of the light poles that are being installed. They provided a rather substantial booklet that shows all the lighting. The light levels have not changed from the plans oriainally submitted. Everything beyond the sound wall is 0.0. The last thing their team would like to address is security. He called on the transit chief, John Joyce. Mr. Joyce said the way they intend to secure the site is the same way they do other Park-N-Rides. They have an access control and an alarm system. After the last bus at night, police go out and check the station to make sure it's clear and it goes into lock down. If there is any intrusion, they would get an alarm on it. It automatically is programmed to unlock with the first bus in the morning. The station will have a voice emergency call box inside the waiting area and voice emergency call backs on the exterior of the building. If you push that button, it goes directly into the police communication center and they can dispatch a car, or the North Olmsted Police can respond, depending on who can be quicker. The way they usually handle these lots is to go over them very well at night. They make sure there are no abandoned cars or anything that is not usual for a parking lot. They deal with those things on a daily basis. They like to keep the lots clean and keep abandoned cars out and that keeps other problems from occurring. They are also very good at responding to complaints by customers. They really concentrate on quality of life issues in the transit authority and police department. He referred to behavior such as eating, drinking, smoking, and disorderly conduct. They have found that a really intense enforcement program focused on that has shown a significant drop in their part one crime rate over the past five or six years. If that crime rate is rather low on the system, they attribute it to their really aggressive program -of intervention and maintaining order, and the fact that they have an automated access control system. The system is digitized. They just finished getting it up in the last few months. When the voice emergency call box is pushed at an outlying station, their closed circuit television would immediately begin to record the event and they can witness what is going on. It is all propelled on the fiber optic system. It is something they have been working on for a long time and they finally have most of the back bone for it in place. They have the second largest police department in the county with 125 full- time sworn police officers, 32 police cars, and 19 civilians. They run a communications center 7 days a week, 24 hours around the clock. They have their own investigators, and they always work closely with the municipalities to deal with any kind of problem that comes up. Mr. Joyce said that is how they intend to secure this new facility. Mr. Allen asked how they would handle an abandoned car in the lot. He said if he had a crisis at work and could not get to his car in the RTA lot until the next morning, would it be towed. Mr. Joyce replied no, not necessarily. He added it depends on how they post the lot. They do what is called an FI card, field interview. They do the same thing with people and they put it into the computer system. If the car is there a second day then some inquiries will be made. More than likely, a phone call will be made to your home to ask why the car is on the lot. If a car stays 72 hours, and there is no response, they hook them. Mr. Spalding asked how they handle kids that come on the lot for skate boarding, bike riding, etc. He asked if there is some kind of control on that. Mr. Joyce indicated that has not been a significant problem. They had a little bit of a problem in the beginning in Westlake but they worked with the Westlake police and they handled it. If they had to they would resort to using the juvenile court, but they prefer to handle anything through the community and through parental intervention. Mr. Koeth said a concern has been how much visibility the North Olmsted and RTA police will have as far as when the lot is full and people are downtown working. He said there was a question about theft and police visibility. He asked how many times a patrol goes through the lot. Mr. Joyce said it depends on what's been going on. They park a little over 8,000 cars a day. Last year, system-wide, they had 35 cars stolen, which is a good record. They police the lot but rather than random patrol, if they have a problem at any Park-N-Ride, when they become aware of a situation, they move on it and notify surrounding police departments. Mr. Lasko asked if RTA will be maintaining the. primary responsibility for the security of the lot, or if it is a joint agreement with North Olmsted. Mr. Joyce said the way things normally occur, at least with other - cities, is they will notify RTA and if they have a unit that is available and close, RTA will take the run. Mr. Lasko said if an alarm sounds based upon what you have in the lot, that alarm would sound at RTA headquarters. Mr. Joyce indicated that is correct. Mr. Lasko asked if that is when you would 7