OCEAN CITY — Resort officials learned last week the Maryland Transit Authority (MTA) had approved a $500,000 grant for surveillance cameras for Ocean City’s municipal buses, but it appears they won’t be ready for the 2017 season.
During last week’s Transportation Committee meeting, Public Works Director Hal Adkins told members the MTA had approved the town’s requested fiscal year 2017 grant allocation for a variety of uses including a new state-of-the-art video surveillance camera system for the fleet of municipal buses. Last spring, the MTA recommended Ocean City move forward with implementing a transit surveillance system aboard its entire fleet, which currently includes 65 vehicles including ADA vans.
The MTA suggested as many as five or six cameras inside and out for the standard 40-foot buses and eight or nine for each of the two new articulating buses. Given the total numbers of vehicles in the resort’s current fleet, the total number of cameras needed to fully outfit the buses would be around 400. However, while the MTA has included funding for the cameras in its fiscal year 2017 allocation for the cameras, it appears unlikely they would be ready for next season.
During Monday’s meeting, Mayor Rick Meehan provided an update to the council on the MTA grant for the video surveillance system. Assistant Superintendent for Transportation Brian Connor last week said there was a cooperative agreement being put together by another state agency through which the video surveillance system will be able to be purchased. Connor said he was hopeful that agreement could be worked out and the cameras could be purchased in time for next season.
“Brian stated he was optimistic this would be implemented by spring 2017, but it was not likely,” said Meehan on Monday. “We told him the committee wanted it to remain optimistic.”
The high-resolution cameras would be hard-wired into each bus by an independent contractor chosen through a competitive bid process. The cameras would no stream live surveillance video from the buses to another site and no one would be monitoring the video and audio in real time. Instead, the surveillance video and audio would be stored on each individual bus and if there was an incident on one of the buses inside or out, the video and audio would be saved.
The announcement about the MTA funding for Ocean City’s video surveillance system for the buses comes on the eve of the trial for the resort’s one and only manslaughter incident in 2016 in a case that appears to have begun as an altercation on a municipal bus. It is uncertain if the investigation would have been aided if video surveillance cameras had been installed on the bus, but it is an example of the benefit of the future system.
On May 29, Ocean City Police and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) responded to the area of Coastal Highway and 136th Street for a reported assault.
The victim, identified as Ryan Shuppert, 31, of Lutherville, Md., was transported to Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury where he was admitted in serious condition with life-threatening injuries. Shuppert later succumbed to injuries sustained in the fight. The victim’s body was transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, who ruled the death a suicide. A few days later, Ocean City Police were able to identify the suspect as Darren Beattie, 21, of Sparrows Point, and he was charged with manslaughter.
Detectives believe the victim and two friends were in a verbal argument with four male suspects on a municipal bus prior to the altercation at 136th Street. After the two groups got off the municipal bus, they converged again and the deadly altercation occurred. Beattie’s trial is set for next Monday.
