Town of Harrison Police Department in New Jersey has improved their performance by deploying a city-wide wireless surveillance system based on IP video. The department reports that its incident response has improved and the percentage of investigations resulting in arrests and prosecutions has significantly increased.
Under the leadership of Police Chief Derek Kearns, Harrison PD has employed the COMPSTAT process to improve their policing operation. COMPSTAT is a management approach that involves collecting, mapping and analysing crime data and other police performance measures on a regular basis. Surveillance video is a key element of this strategy. <br> <br>Prior to this initiative, Harrison had a handful of poor quality cameras monitoring their urban centre, which did not include recording. In 2008 they looked into IP video, following the recommendation of the Hudson County’s Prosecutors’ Office who had used an IndigoVision product on their surveillance and interview process. With the help of IndigoVision’s Authorised Partner, Pinnacle Wireless, they tested the system by connecting an existing analogue dome camera to an IndigoVision video transmitter module and streaming the video onto their existing network. The rest as they say is history.<br> <br>Sergeant Ed Markowski, of Harrison Police Department, says: “We were so impressed with the video quality and the capabilities that IP Video offered, we kicked off a plan to deploy a city-wide system. We have now installed cameras in our interrogation room, the local library and around the city centre. The next 15 cameras will be fitted in the landmark Red Bull Arena. Then we can really dive into the good stuff – we have barely scratched the surface with the system capabilities and are anxious to learn more.”<br> <br>Officers use ‘Control Center’, IndigoVision’s Video Management Software, to monitor live video and analyse recordings, which are stored on IndigoVision’s standalone Network Video Recorders (NVRs). The server-less distributed architecture of the system enables ‘Control Center’ PC workstations to be at any point on the network, without the need to stream video through a central server. Harrison PD use ‘Control Center’ in dispatch as well as on the desks of eight other remote officers and detectives, including the Chief of Police.<br> <br>“We can now validate and authenticate video evidence from robberies, crimes and other incidents, which we could not do before,” added Markowski. “The new surveillance system has given us additional ‘eyes’ on the street, expanding officers’ reach and helping us to improve our incident response.”<br> <br>Another reason that Harrison PD chose IndigoVision was that it can record hi-fidelity audio in synchronisation with the video and with a guarantee of no dropped video frames. Evidential video clips that are recorded in their interrogation room and then used in court cannot be open to interpretation. Having ‘lip-sync’ delays between the video and audio or dropped frames could introduce uncertainty during playback. <br> <br>Pinnacle installed a combination of point-to-point and point-to-multipoint wireless systems to provide city-wide network coverage for the system. The key to streaming video across wireless networks is the firms say to minimise the overall bandwidth usage. IndigoVision achieves this with compression technology and a feature called Activity Controlled Framerate. ACF controls the frame rate of the video stream based on the amount of motion in the scene. When there is no activity, video is streamed at minimal bandwidth; the instant any motion is detected, video is simultaneously transmitted at maximum configured frame rate. This reduces the bandwidth requirement for cameras monitoring generally static scenes or during quiet periods, such as at night. These factors also help to reduce the amount of video storage required.<br> <br>Malaysian city<br> <br>Meanwhile: Subang Jaya Municipal Council (MPSJ) has deployed a fully-integrated wireless CCTV surveillance system using IndigoVision’s IP Video technology. MPSJ administrates the city of Subang Jaya, which has a population of 4.7 million in the state of Selangor on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. This is the first large scale deployment of centrally monitored CCTV cameras by a municipal council in Malaysia. The 100 camera system was designed and installed by IndigoVision’s approved Partner GTC Global Sdn Bhd, who specialise in deploying integrated wireless security solutions.<br> <br>“We needed a reliable IP-based video surveillance solution that could be deployed across large areas using wireless broadband networks,” said Mr Imran, Director of GTC Global Sdn Bhd. “IndigoVision has supplied wireless IP Video systems for many city-wide surveillance projects around the world, making them an ideal partner for this project.”<br> <br>Video from 90 PTZ and fixed cameras, as well as 10 mobile units, is streamed back to MPSJ’s purpose-built command centre, where the council’s enforcement officers can observe in real-time traffic congestion, criminal activity and public safety. At the heart of the command centre is a large wall-mounted Graphical Information System (GIS) display that allows users to zoom in on individual residential and commercial addresses. Through an interface with the IndigoVision system, video can be overlaid on the GIS display to help improve situational awareness. Individual operators use multi-monitor PC workstations running IndigoVision’s ‘Control Center’ software, which provides a powerful suite of features to view and quickly analyse live and recorded video.<br> <br>IndigoVision’s compression technology allows video to be transmitted over an area in excess of 160km2 using Motorola’s Wireless Broadband Point-to-Multipoint 100 Series system. The ten mobile camera units can be temporarily installed at local hot-spots and be operational using a wireless link. The command centre is also connected via dedicated wireless links to the Selangor police headquarters in Shah Alam and the Subang Jaya police district headquarters at Seri Kembangan. This allows live and recorded video from any camera to be viewed and analysed by the police using their own ‘Control Center’ workstations. This helps improve overall incident response without the need for police officers to be stationed in the command centre. <br> <br>“The system has been delivered to MPSJ on a rental-lease basis, where we have purchased the equipment upfront and the council pays a yearly lease to operate the system,” continued Mr. Imran. “The reliability of the system and IndigoVision’s excellent technical support is of utmost importance to us as the lease would be terminated if the system does not work.”<br> <br>‘Control Center’ incorporates integrated alarm management functionality, which has been put to use by GTC Global Sdn Bhd. When the local equipment cabinet is opened an alarm is triggered via a digital input on IndigoVision’s IP Video transmitter unit, which is installed next to each camera. This alerts an operator by identifying the location of the alarm on a ‘Control Center’ map screen. Video from the local camera can then be viewed to monitor the situation. <br> <br>All cameras are continuously recorded using IndigoVision’s Windows Network Video Recorder (NVR) software with 30TB of Raid 5 storage, giving a 30 day archive. The overall storage requirement and bandwidth demand on the wireless network is reduced through IndigoVision’s compression technology and a unique feature called Activity Controlled Framerate (ACF). Built into IndigoVision’s IP transmitters, ACF allows video to be streamed at a lower framerate when the camera scene is inactive and then instantaneously ramps to the maximum configured framerate when motion is detected. ?Visit –
