Thames Valley Police (TVP) are now able to route any of their 1,100 CCTV camera images from anywhere around their cities, towns or villages of their three counties to either of their two new centralised control rooms at Abingdon or Milton Keynes.
The new WAN (Wide Area Network) based system is so flexible that by utilising any video over IP technology, CCTV pictures can be securely viewed by TVP senior officers commanding Gold or Silver Suites and even at the desks of their own Chief Officers who may be elsewhere in the country. When an incident is reported, the police control room operators are now able to visually assess evolving incidents by selecting any camera from within this ‘CEDRIC’ system, instantly viewing CCTV images in a ‘pop-up’ window on their desktop TFT screens from any of the eleven CCTV monitoring centres around the region. This will enable them to see the people or incident involved and direct appropriate police resources via the radio network in ‘real time’.
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Camera control
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Those viewing the images at the centralised police control rooms do not have the facility to ‘control’ the cameras, this rests with the skilled and dexterous CCTV operator who will provide appropriate images as requested. In order to comply with the Data Protection Act, CCTV monitoring room managers have total control over any of the CCTV images sent and an audit trail is provided with full integration to the recording of their existing system. Following the success of this project, TVP are intending to integrate video from helicopter cameras, Motorway Monitoring Units, plus the management and monitoring of access control points. CEDRIC is part of TVP’s answer to using up to date technology to improve the benefits of the CCTV cameras in and around their region. Named *CEDRIC, (CCTV Equipment Direct Relay to CSMS) it uses custom-built software technology from CNL (who were awarded winners of ‘Best Software Product’ at the IP Security Awards in January 2004) to control and distribute video from each and any of the eleven hundred CCTV cameras around the force area. These high quality images are shown through integration with TVP’s command and control software and utilises an advanced Microsoft .Net infrastructure to make it infinitely scalable for unlimited future growth.
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MSC Security Consultancy
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MSC Security Consultancy of Bristol were engaged by TVP as specialist CCTV consultants to explore suitable technologies that would allow live video to be connected from the CCTV centres to specific operator positions in the police control rooms. MSC, following a recent merger, is now a trading division of Global Intelligence Group Solutions (GIGS), who are a group of former UK police officers, trained in modern crime reduction techniques, now specialising in CCTV systems applications, and design. The group also has specialist security divisions in the music sector, general international security consultancy and forensic computer analysis. The principal, Derek Maltby, currently sits on the UK CCTV Standards Advisory Board (since its inception in 1997) an organisation that advises and promotes good practice on Data Protection issues, quality assurance, cost effectiveness and proportionality of CCTV systems. MSC has CCTV design and project management experience within the industry including such clients as West Oxfordshire District Council, Bristol City Council, Avon & Somerset Constabulary, Cherwell District Council, Dacorum Borough Council, Suffolk Coastal District Council, Aylesbury Vale District Council, South Bucks District Council, South Oxfordshire District Council, The Vale of White Horse District Council, BT, Universal Music, Greene King, Wiltshire Shared Services NHS Consortium, Bristol Chamber of Commerce and Initiative etc. They have recently designed with Thames Valley Police, a £500,000 CCTV system for Bridgetown for the Government of Barbados which is shortly to be implemented.
