DeKALB – The DeKalb City Council will consider using a federal grant to cover the $96,000 cost of equipping the rest of Voluntary Action Center’s bus fleet with cameras at its next meeting.
The council will meet at 6 p.m. Monday at the DeKalb Municipal Building, 200 S. Fourth St., DeKalb.
When the city bought 35-foot and 40-foot buses in 2012, it required all new buses to have video camera systems for the safety of passengers and drivers. City officials, with the support of two committees of the DeKalb-Sycamore Area Transportation Study planning organization, want to use Federal Transit Administration grant funds to equip the remaining 27 VAC buses with camera systems, according to a city memo.
The video recordings would be available for review and documentation by police and insurance companies, the memo notes.
If the council doesn’t use the grant funds, it will lose out on the money. The funding expires Sept. 30, according to the memo.
VAC’s fleet of 41 buses provides 220,000 rides a year.
*Published by The Daily Chronicle, written by Brett Rowland, Photo by Danielle Guerra
