Surveillance System Helps Protect Popular San Diego Beach

San Diego draws millions of tourists every year and is home to miles of beautiful beaches and luscious scenery. But just like any large city, law enforcement must constantly wage battle against an ever-growing number of criminals.

One area of concern for San Diego was Mission Beach. The most popular beach in the city draws throngs of visitors and is home to numerous businesses.

And in 2006, police reported the largest number of violent crimes in the beach’s history, including two sexual assaults. In response, residents collected more than $30,000 in private donations for a video surveillance system. An additional $80,000 was raised in a bond proposition.

With funding set, the city looked to local provider Dotworkz for a solution.

"The city's chief concerns were to deter crime on Mission Beach, to create a visual record of any incidents that may occur and to improve police response times," said William Ferris, CEO of Dotworkz. "An analog CCTV system could not deliver what they needed. IP-based video, however, could achieve those objectives and more, plus add the capability for expansion without significant capital costs."

The system now includes five Sony SNC-RZ50 PTZ network cameras to cover the relatively small perimeters of Belmont Park. The cameras feature 26x optical zoom, allowing police to zoom in on small or distant details.

And with the cameras located in a residential area, four of the five cameras are configured with Dotworkz “city link” mesh option in the 5.8 GHz wireless spectrum instead of 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi. With the wireless option, the cameras transmit high-resolution video at up to 20 fps with 108 megabyte throughput back to the police command center two miles away.

"Wireless connectivity gives the Mission Beach system additional flexibility and scalability, plus saved the municipality the cost of wiring and installation labor," Ferris said. "Right now, the video is sent to the northern division area's command center, but in the future roving police may add camera access on their laptops, PDAs and smart phones."

The system is tied together with the NetDVMS software from On-Net Surveillance Systems. The software gives law enforcement in the command center immediate and centralized access to all of the cameras and schedulable PTZ patrol sequences when the system is not being actively manned.

About the Author

Brent Dirks is senior editor for Security Today and Campus Security Today magazines.

Featured

  • 2025 Security LeadHER Conference Program Announced

    ASIS International and the Security Industry Association (SIA) – the leading membership associations for the security industry – have announced details for the 2025 Security LeadHER conference, a special event dedicated to advancing, connecting and empowering women in the security profession. The third annual Security LeadHER conference will be held Monday, June 9 – Tuesday, June 10, 2025, at the Detroit Marriott Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan. This carefully crafted program represents a comprehensive professional development opportunity for women in security this year. To view the full lineup at this year’s event, please visit securityleadher.org. Read Now

    • Industry Events

  • Report: 82 Percent of Phishing Emails Used AI

    KnowBe4, the world-renowned cybersecurity platform that comprehensively addresses human risk management, today launched its Phishing Threat Trend Report, detailing key trends, new data, and threat intelligence insights surrounding phishing threats targeting organizations at the start of 2025. Read Now

  • NRF Supports Federal Bill to Thwart Retail Crime

    The National Retail Federation recently announced its support for the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act of 2025. The act was introduced by Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Representative Dave Joyce, R-Ohio. Read Now

  • ISC West 2025 Brings Almost 29,000 Industry Professionals to Las Vegas

    ISC West 2025, organized by RX and in collaboration with the Security Industry Association, concluded at the Venetian Expo in Las Vegas last week. The nation’s leading comprehensive and converged security event attracted nearly 29,000 industry professionals and left a lasting impression on the global security community. Over five action-packed days, ISC West welcomed more than 19,000 attendees and featured 750 exhibiting brands. Read Now

    • Industry Events
    • ISC West

  • Tradeshow Work Can Be Fun

    While at ISC West last week, I ran into numerous friends and associates all of which was a pleasant experience. The first question always seemed to be, “How many does this make for you?” Read Now

    • Industry Events
    • ISC West
Most   Popular

New Products

  • QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC)

    QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC)

    The latest Qualcomm® Vision Intelligence Platform offers next-generation smart camera IoT solutions to improve safety and security across enterprises, cities and spaces. The Vision Intelligence Platform was expanded in March 2022 with the introduction of the QCS7230 System-on-Chip (SoC), which delivers superior artificial intelligence (AI) inferencing at the edge.

  • Luma x20

    Luma x20

    Snap One has announced its popular Luma x20 family of surveillance products now offers even greater security and privacy for home and business owners across the globe by giving them full control over integrators’ system access to view live and recorded video. According to Snap One Product Manager Derek Webb, the new “customer handoff” feature provides enhanced user control after initial installation, allowing the owners to have total privacy while also making it easy to reinstate integrator access when maintenance or assistance is required. This new feature is now available to all Luma x20 users globally. “The Luma x20 family of surveillance solutions provides excellent image and audio capture, and with the new customer handoff feature, it now offers absolute privacy for camera feeds and recordings,” Webb said. “With notifications and integrator access controlled through the powerful OvrC remote system management platform, it’s easy for integrators to give their clients full control of their footage and then to get temporary access from the client for any troubleshooting needs.”

  • 4K Video Decoder

    3xLOGIC’s VH-DECODER-4K is perfect for use in organizations of all sizes in diverse vertical sectors such as retail, leisure and hospitality, education and commercial premises.