Thames Valley Police & Crime Commissioner (PCC) Matthew Barber has proposed to take on the ownership and monitoring of public space CCTV from councils to Thames Valley Police control rooms, with any council that chose to participate. Matthew Barber said: “CCTV is an important part of community safety; benefitting police and local communities in helping to deter crime and antisocial behaviour, identify offenders and support prosecutions. Ongoing commitment and investment enables high quality, consistent and sustainable CCTV provision now and into the future.”
Some council control rooms in the Thames Valley, such as Windsor & Maidenhead, had already fitted Genetec Security Center as their control room management software. As an open platform video management system, it could support a phased unification or “takeover” of other council systems in the Thames Valley area. The sottware’s hybrid cloud architecture provided Thames Valley with flexibility to use a mix of cloud or on-premises infrastructure.
After a competitive tender, Thames Valley chose CDS Systems as installer of Genetec Security Center and a range of multi-directional AI-enabled cameras from Hanwha Vision. Sam Thomas of CDS Systems said: “We urgently needed to improve the quality of CCTV, enhance collaboration, and drive efficiencies for all partners. The respective capabilities and seamless integration between Genetec and Hanwha Vision technology was the optimal way of meeting Thames Valley’s requirements.”
Phase one of the deployment involved CDS taking over a control room in Milton Keynes (pictured, on-street signage), replacing the legacy analogue kit with an IP backbone. It then installed Genetec Security Center to make one platform through which officers could interact with incoming video feeds. Legacy cameras were retained and reused, where possible. A second Genetec workstation was also set up inside Slough Police Station, allowing officers to review footage.
CDS then installed Hanwha Vision’s AI-enabled multi-directional 4k cameras to public spaces. Each of these cameras incorporates up to five cameras in one device for wide-area surveillance, which would previously have required several devices. They also provide AI analytics, including object detection and classification, to enable forensic search. For example, identifying and establishing the movement of specific people or vehicles based on attributes such as vehicle type.
Phase two will see four council control rooms in Oxfordshire merged into a single hub inside Abingdon Police station, also built on Genetec Security Center. This and the control room in Milton Keynes will be interlinked, adding resilience as each site will be able to act as a fall-back for the other. At this point, there will be a team of 18 staff responsible for monitoring CCTV and enhancing CCTV for those areas taking part in the Thames Valley CCTV Partnership.
Jason Owen, CCTV Operations Manager, Thames Valley Police, spoke at the 2024 CCTV Users Group conference and was featured in the June 2024 edition of Professional Security magazine, He said: “The CCTV Command Suite enabled by CDS, Genetec and Hanwha Vision has improved our workflows beyond recognition, enabling staff to quickly review and package evidence for frontline officers or more complex investigations. It has received several plaudits from officers for its ease of use.”
Police say that pooling resources and transferring ownership to them has brought about cost efficiencies for participating authorities, while enhancing the quality and reliability of public spaces CCTV. The police have direct access to quality video evidence. Unlike in a council-run control room, all CCTV operators are civilian police staff vetted to the same clearance levels as sworn-in officers. This means they have full access to Thames Valley force’s databases and reporting software packages. They can thus report incidents, support front-line officers, and communicate with investigators. On average, they are handling 300 to 500 incidents a month that has increased the number of successful requests for supporting footage.
“We’ve immediately seen the benefit of our investment in equipment and CCTV operators, with the police now much better equipped to deter and detect crime across the Thames Valley,” adds Barber.
Thames Valley has plans to use the Genetec platform to connect its people and mobile surveillance assets back to its control rooms for better cross-force interaction. Genetec Federation as a Service is already allowing live and recorded video to be shared with officers in the field. Soon it will also be extended to ensure video from police CCTV vans and drones is available in the control room. As for the AI-equipped Hanwha Vision cameras as specified by CDS, control room operators’ intuition will always be the driving force that brings results, the installer says, but AI is freeing them up to do what they do best by saving time on routine monitoring and searches. Talks continue that would see the addition of other council control rooms in the Thames Valley to the Thames Valley CCTV Partnership.
