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In mid-December, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) and Chicago Police Department (CPD) will begin a six-month pilot to test a mobile security network.

The agencies will test the network on CTA buses, and supervisory and security vehicles, as well as CPD Public Transportation Section police cars. Tests also will be conducted at select rail stations and two vehicle garages.

The mobile security network will feature wireless transmitters that send live images from existing cameras to laptop computers in vehicles and at facilities. Images would be transmitted via CTA’s existing fiber-optic network that connects cameras at rail stations. The authority currently is in the midst of a two-year, $31 million project to upgrade its fiber-optic network.

CTA’s security camera system currently can transmit live images from stations and platforms to the authority’s Control Center and Office of Emergency Management and Communications. By year’s end, CTA will have more than 1,000 security cameras installed at 49 stations system-wide.