Posted on 01/15/2005 1:24:39 PM PST by crushelits
SAN DIEGO -- John Phillips peered down at the computer screen. Something didn't look quite right. It was 9:11 a.m. on the West Coast, or just past noon in the East, and all the bus drivers were supposed to be on break. The map of the District of Columbia showed hundreds of red blips representing vehicles that had been parked for more than an hour. But then there was one black dot, a lone bus, moving rapidly in the northwestern quadrant of the city.
Could the D.C. Public Schools bus have been stolen -- or worse -- hijacked with children still on board?
Phillips quickly clicked on the icon representing the vehicle and relaxed at what he saw. The bus was in front of the Kennedy Center. It was on a field trip.
From inside a dimly lit room behind two-foot-thick concrete walls, a steel door and jail gate, Phillips and eight other staffers in this 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week command center are like all-seeing gods, watching over thousands of people across the continent.
Phillips works for Satellite Security Systems Inc., or S3, one of a growing number of private companies providing satellite tracking services to anyone willing to pay. Once a fabulously expensive tool for the military, the technology is becoming part of everyday life, spawning dozens of new uses.
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(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
On break for more than an hour???
Alan Parsons Project huh?
For a school bus it's hardly surprising. The drivers usually do about four hours of work over ten hours.
Those people need watching at all times.
Great song by The Alan Parsons Project: "Eye In The Sky"
Especially "Time"
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