Rail and aviation companies need video redaction to meet operational objectives compliantly
In this article, we explore the different requirements of rail and aviation firms for video redaction. The rail industry has implemented systems and protocols to tackle fraud and fare evasion. In the aviation industry, aircraft maintenance and safety are absolutely critical to operations.
To tackle rail fare dodging effectively, irrefutable evidence of an offence is required to convict offenders.
To monitor safety measures and consistent best practice, aviation firms need to monitor works and procedures for the duration of aircraft maintenance.
The missing, final element to achieve operational objectives, to generate effective evidence, and to comply with privacy regulations such as GDPR, is a video redaction solution.
The scale of rail fare evasion
Rail companies have invested significant amounts of money in fraud detection systems and resources.
Even though one rail company has reduced fare dodging, it still reports significant lost revenues and high levels of penalty notices and prosecution.
The Northern line train operator says ticketless travel accounted for as little as 3% of journeys on its network during the last twelve months April 2023 to March 2024.
Northern previously reported a 20% drop in the number of penalty fares issued in the year following the government’s increase of the fine for those travelling without a ticket to £100.
The operator still had to investigate 57,302 reports of attempted fare evasion (2023-4), issue 41,922 Penalty Fare Notices and attend 172 court sittings. Recovery activity helped to recover almost £4 million of lost revenue.
Northern is the second largest train operator in the UK, with nearly 2,500 services a day to more than 500 stations across the North of England.
Elsewhere, Transport for London (TfL) estimated losses over the course of a year (2022-3) at £130m across trains, buses and trams. TfL says evasion takes away vital revenue that would otherwise be reinvested in its transport network to keep London moving.
Heavy investment in fare dodging detection
Revenue loss through fare evasion is significant across all rail operators. The costs involved in detecting, penalising and prosecuting offenders are also significant.
Some rail operators have installed sophisticated systems to detect fare dodgers.
For example, TfL is cracking down on barrier jumpers on the underground with new AI technology. Software that can identify passengers who are likely to jump the barriers was tested at Willesden Green station, on the Jubilee Line. TfL now plans to roll out this technology in more stations after the success of the trial.
ITAP is another detection system introduced a few years ago that detects fare evasion and revenue loss from patterns in ticketing and passenger data, by identifying people who avoid paying for all or part of their journey.
The information generated by ITAP supports various interventions that aim to measure and reduce revenue loss and deter people from evading their fares. These activities include targeted email campaigns warning customers that they must pay the correct fare, operational station deployments and a register of regular offenders that ITAP has identified for irregular travel patterns who may be prioritised for further investigation and subsequent prosecution.
Other operators around Europe have introduced deep learning video analytics to protect public transport revenues, assets, passengers and mobility. AI video analytics help to tackle fare evasion by analysing video streams in real-time. Ticket inspectors can check screenshots of potential fare evasion incidents on real-time video analytics apps.
To summarise the scale of the problem, fare evasion is a corrosive problem on public transit systems around the world. Evasion causes feelings of unfairness among paying passengers and financial losses amounting to billions of pounds/euros/dollars annually.
Video required to tackle disorderly conduct
A rail operator in the UK has introduced a programme to tackle disorderly conduct by preventing passengers from boarding trains if they are obviously drunk or being unruly. Video and video redaction underpin the operator’s Safe Travel policy. Staff have the authority to refuse travel in the event of intoxication or anti-social behaviour.
Passengers subsequently request refunds and make complaints, which then progress to court. The rail operator is able to present redacted video evidence captured on CCTV or body worn cameras to prove beyond doubt that passengers have contravened their Safe Travel policy and thereby protect revenues.
Video redaction needed to perfect fare dodging deterrents
Deterring potential fare dodgers is as important, or even more important than prosecuting evaders.
As mentioned previously, rail operators have successfully reduced fare dodging by either raising penalties or deploying more resources.
The more doubts about evasion success that can be placed in the fare dodger’s mind, the more likely it is that fare dodging incidents can be further reduced and contained.
Video evidence has become one of the primary forms of evidence presented in court. However, we have spoken to some rail operators that are unable to close the ‘evasion loop’ as they don’t have the capability to submit redacted video to courts. This, notwithstanding significant investment in anti-evasion resources.
When video footage is shared with any third party, including lawyers and courts, and even the police, all but the subject of interest must be redacted (masked) in order to protect the privacy rights of others captured in the scene.
Without redaction, fare dodgers are less likely to be convicted or penalised as video evidence cannot be used as evidence.
Article Update: 74,000 Unlawful Fare Evasion Prosecutions?
In August 2024, it was reported that several train companies have unlawfully prosecuted individuals by misusing the Single Justice Procedure. It is suggested that more than 74,000 convictions for fare evasion offences have now been quashed.
The news could have significant consequences for the train companies involved, as lost revenue and costs could run into tens of millions of pounds.
Convictions will be removed from the record and the courts will need to reimburse the Defendants for any money paid as part of their sentencing.
The quashed prosecutions illustrate that it is not a straightforward process to balance the competing interests of recouping revenue (comprising many relatively small sums) on a huge scale and dealing with individual cases fairly.
Identity Cloak for redacting fare evasion evidence
Facit’s Identity Cloak enables operators to complete the final step in evidence processing.
Identity Cloak enables operators to redact complex video footage and mask all but the subject of interest. The redaction process is automated, simple and reliable. Redacted video is available in just minutes.
Identity Cloak, for a small investment, can provide rail operators with a tool to enable them to show evidence in court that proves beyond doubt that someone has dodged paying a fare.
Aviation safety in the spotlight
The safety of airline passengers is of the utmost importance. Recent headlines about aircraft safety have worried the aviation industry and the general public.
Boeing has been in the news following a series of problems with its aircraft, which include a near-disastrous panel blowout on an Alaska Airlines jet in January.
Aviation experts usually look to three possible explanations for problems: a design defect, a production defect or insufficient maintenance. The first two elements are the responsibility of the plane manufacturer, while the airline is in charge of plane maintenance after it receives it.
Facit has been speaking with airlines and maintenance firms that want to monitor and scrutinise aircraft maintenance procedures.
Video redaction for process monitoring
Progressive aviation companies want to record engineers and maintenance procedures throughout the servicing of a plane.
Their aim is show clearly that safety and compliance procedures are being followed.
In order to film staff and other service personnel compliantly, the identities of people in the video footage must be redacted. Thereafter, video footage can be stored and, in the event of it being required, it can be produced in the knowledge that it is fully GDPR compliant.
Identity Cloak enables operators to redact faces automatically, as well any other sensitive information.
Video redaction furthers operational objectives
Facit provides video redaction solutions to enable operators to redact post-event and live video footage. Get in touch to learn how you can add redaction capabilities easily to your fraud and QA operations.
