San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority - More Answers
The SGVTA Contraversy
This is one part of a series of posts about The San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority- Truth is stranger than fiction (03-Mar)
- More on the $1M Ferrari wreck in Malbu (18-Mar)
- The San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority Anti_Terrorism Unit (24-Mar)
- The San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority Rebuttle (27-Mar)
- San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority - More Answers (29-Mar)
Dear Ron,Thank you for taking the time to do this. You have shed light on most every question and concern I had. I truly appreciate it.
I want to reply one last time to your remaining questions, however, after this response I believe there will be nothing left to say, and therefore won't respond to any further questions.
As for the "police" website being overblown, I acknowledge the error. That site was put together by a well meaning volunteer who basically grabbed content from other sites, and discussed what we planned to do in the future, rather than what we were at the time. We've well acknowledged that error, said our mia culpas and are now ready to move on.I see that your website has been taken down. That is good because it was really misleading.
As for your suggestion that we amputate the police department. Whether you call it a "police department," "public safety division," "security department," "safety department" or "niceness services," all transit agencies are required to perform the functions I outlined in my original letter to you. Our board is currently reviewing the name to determine what would sit best with the public, but the functions performed by whatever we end up calling it are mandatory, so the final result will be mostly form over substance.Sorry. I was not clear. Yes, you do have the responsibility to assure that your equipment, drivers, and procedures, meet all laws and standards. But you gave the impression that your "police" department was there to police the public, not yourselves. Big difference there.
With regard to your question about what the camera monitoring system would do, I will only say that it was going to use existing CDMA technology in conjunction with compression technology that Mr. Eriksson developed for other governments to permit real time streaming of all the cameras on board each bus through one single CDMA connection.OK... onboard webcams transmitting through a cell phone. Nothing that hasn't been done already.
And yes, Mr. Eriksson was planning to equip this camera system with facial recognition technology, something he has worked on before. Buses provide a uniquely cooperative host for facial recognition because sample faces can be limited to nearly one at a time as passengers are scanned, as opposed to typical facial recognition applications that scan hundreds or thousands at a time within groups of people.Like I said before, the transport of the raw data to be processed is the easy part. That hard part is doing something with it.
You may believe that the system that Mr. Eriksson proposed to us is already available, but I submit that it would have in fact been revolutionary.As I said, taking pictures or videos and sending them over a cell phone is nothing magic. A working face recognition system that uses these images is mindblowing.
Simply running the name "Stefan Eriksson" on Google will provide you with a very impressive resume, including previous work for the British, Chinese and Russian governments.I'm looking. I don't see your Stefan Eriksson doing any such things. Links please! However, I do find links about how he was busted in 1993 for counterfeiting and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. I have read how he was known to be the leader of an organized crime group dubbed "The Uppsala Mafia". I have read the SEC reports for his company, Tiger Telematics Inc. Scary stuff. I read how he was forced to resign in 2005 when his past caught up with him. I've read how they were doing shady deals by paying contracts to other companies the executives owned. And they were paying family and friends large "consulting fees" and themselves lots of toys on the company dime.
I do find information about other Stefan Erikssons. But not yours. I see there is a Stefen Eriksson who works at the Swedish embassy in Moscow. There are others who work for major universities and companies around the world.
Sorry bud.... it seems like his resume is complete fiction.
To answer your question, no we never saw a "working" prototype of the system, but we had no doubt that Mr. Eriksson and his associates could have developed the system if he wanted. Whether he really intended to fulfill his commitments, or just wanted to misrepresent his true role with us is something we'll be wondering about for years to come.Like I told you before. I think you were being hoodwinked by a con artist. Eriksson seems to have a problem telling the truth.
All of the people involved with SGVTA have donated huge amounts of time and effort for a good cause. Sure we made mistakes, but I doubt any other small charity such as ours has ever been in the public eye and scrutinized as heavily as we were in this instance.unfortunately it only takes one bad apple to ruin the barrel.
Ron, if someone went through everything you've ever said or done, or spoke to anyone you've ever had an argument with, only to turn around and report it all as fact, I suspect you'd look a lot different than the person you really are. I wish that on no one.That is an exaggeration. I've only questioned the facts presented on your own web site and news articles.
Now, one last request. I've responded to every single question you've put to me, and I've accepted responsibility for those things I think we did wrong. How about you Ron? Your original posts make allegations that simply weren't true. You jumped to conclusions without the facts, and once I brought the facts to your attention, you shifted the debate to issues beyond the scope of what you originally wrote.Considering the strange facts that I had to work with, some that you claim are false. What conclusion was I suppose to come to?
Fact, SGVTA has never received ONE penny of taxpayer money, yet you have not apologized for saying we did without knowing the facts.Sorry. I was given the impression from the statement from Monrovia City Manager Scott Ochoa who said "We warned them that if the police agency operated with them in the city of Monrovia, it would jeopardize their [transit] agreement with us." That gave me the impression that the city was paying for the services. After all, it takes money to pay for the large police department that your web site claimed you had.
Fact, SGVTA has never purchased any weapons whatsoever, yet your original post certainly postulates that it might be our secret reason for creating the police department, yet you have not yet acknowledged that you were wrong.OK... but I wasn't thinking about you. I was thinking about Eriksson. I wouldn't put it past him to get weapons using your department's credentials.
You did finally try to separate us from Mr. Eriksson in an effort to demonstrate the difference. However, we freely acknowledge having accepted Mr. Eriksson offer to donate his time and efforts.I suppose you heard what happened to him today? He had his illegally registered Mercedes-Benz SLR impounded because it was reported stolen in the UK, and his wife was busted for driving it without a drivers license. Nothing seems right about this guy. Sorry you got messed up with him. He must be good if your natural BS detectors didn't go off.
There are other misconceptions that you conveyed in your original post, and I certainly understand your skepticism. I do believe that you at least owe us an apology for those areas where you misrepresented the truth, or offered speculation that served to hurt us more.OK. Fair nuff. I apologize for things that turned out not to be true. Thanks for the information.
I appreciate your intellectual analysis, but would at least like to see an apology for those things you said that simply weren't true.
Good luck to you in the future,Same to you. I hope you and the SGVTA can put these mistakes behind you.
Yosuf "Yo" Maiwandi
San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority
So there it is... the official story. The SGVTA is a good, honest, and free public service. The SGVTA was taken in by a criminal con artist, Eriksson. And then they were sunk by their own fictional public image as presented by their web site.
You gotta admit. It is one hell of a strange story.