The All-Seeing Eyewitness
DIgital surveillance system records shooting
- By Charlie Schacter
- Sep 09, 2008
Shortly before 1 p.m. on May 7, a
man who was supposed to be
returning divorce papers at a St.
Petersburg, Fla., courthouse pulled out a
gun instead, opening fire in the lobby
before two bailiffs fatally shot him.
The incident began when the 30-yearold
man entered the main lobby of the
courthouse wearing a backpack. As he
approached the security checkpoint, he
was asked to place his backpack on the
conveyer belt. The man responded by
drawing a semi-automatic pistol, which
he then began firing at the deputies.
One round struck a deputy in his left
shoulder. He and the other deputy, who
was uninjured, returned fire with their
handguns. The shooter was killed in the
exchange of gunfire. Thirteen rounds
were fired by the suspect and deputies
within a few seconds, while standing
several feet apart. About 12 seconds
elapsed from the time the shooter
entered the courthouse lobby to the conclusion
of the incident.
Since the shooting involved a fatality,
as well as a wounded officer, sheriff ’s
detectives began a crime scene investigation.
Although there were many eyewitnesses,
none of them had a perfect view
of every participant in the shooting. As
the shooting began, people were instinctively
concerned with escaping danger
rather than paying attention the details of
the unfolding events.
It wasn’t until a few hours later that
authorities discovered a reliable, unshaken
eyewitness of the entire incident from two
completely separate angles—a Digital
Sprite 2 DVR from Dedicated Micros.
A Dedicated Solution
Three days prior to the shooting, a DS2
DVR was installed in the courthouse to
replace an inoperative DVR. The DS2
DVR continuously records images from
16 day/night cameras—14 overlooking the
courthouse perimeter and two hanging
inside the main lobby. With its hard disk
and video compression algorithms, the
DVR can record up to 32 days of video.
“The Dedicated Micros DS2 DVR
was so new that system setup and training
was not yet complete,” said Keith
Royster, the facility operations manager
at Pinellas County, Fla., General
Services. “The operations manager called
Southeast Security, the company that supports
the DVR, and a technician was able
to talk him through the process of finding
the time-stamped recording, extracting it
from the hard drive and burning it onto a
CD. Because the DS2 DVR is user-friendly,
the police had the video footage
on the same day of the shooting.”
The DVR was a valuable tool in the
investigation. It provided a high-quality
recording of the entire incident, enabling
deputies to see every detail. The footage
clearly proved that deputies were justified
in the use of deadly force as an act of self-defense.
The footage was released to media
and subsequently broadcast on CNN.
“There is no question that a more
time- and resource-consuming police
investigation would have been required if
the DVR and cameras hadn’t recorded the
episode,” Royster said. “The sheriff ’s
department is now using the video
recording for training purposes, so officers
can better understand how to react in
a similar situation.”
Internet, Remote Viewing
By replacing its aging analog DVR with a
professional digital CCTV device, Pinellas
County officials enjoy a host of new capabilities
such as support for IP networking.
Now, operators can view and control images
remotely using an Internet connection.
The General Services Facilities operations
are housed in a separate structure
near the judicial building. A standard
Ethernet connection allows live and
recorded viewing on a networked PC,
using NetVu ObserVer software or via
Web pages using a standard Web browser.
Multiple remote operators can access
full, quad, six-, nine- and even 16-way
screens with VCR-style fast-forward,
rewind and frame-by-frame viewing.
They have manual control of relay outputs
that control devices connected to the
DVR as PTZ cameras.
“We use the MPEG-4 compression
technology to reduce bandwidth requirements,
and yet the quality of resolution is
still very good,” Royster said. “Extending
the ability to view images from the DS2
DVR doesn’t require any additional cost
or overhead, so we’re allowing the sheriff’s department to have access to it.”
Video Motion Detection
Many of the day/night cameras are
equipped with motion detection, which is
unable to distinguish between different
types of movement. The software allows
Pinellas Country officials control when
the DVR starts recording, based on video
motion detected from the cameras.
“The video motion detection feature
lets us customize each camera, so if we
know a certain camera includes a view of
cars driving down the street, we can blank
out that portion of the screen and only
record when people walk in front of the
building,” Royster said. “This really
makes the motion detection cameras
more flexible and powerful.”
The process of picking good equipment
really boils down to two things: will
the equipment work properly, and how is
the customer service? In this case, both
were answered satisfactory as integrators
and end users agreed.
“Not only did they help us over the
phone on the day of the shooting, they even
came down here the following week to give
hands-on training,” Royster said. “Despite
the tight fiscal budget atmosphere, we’re
requesting to upgrade all of our video surveillance
equipment. After seeing its benefits
in the courthouse shooting, the sheriff’s
department also is considering funding
another DVR from its
own budget.”