Wireless Video Surveillance System Helps Decrease Crime In Georgia City
The city of Temple, Georgia, located on the border of Georgia and Alabama, has deployed a next-generation wireless video surveillance system and public safety network which will be a testbed for advanced public safety applications and services.
The broadband wireless network supports streaming video and mobile voice in police cars operating at high speeds as well as providing access to data applications to officers in the field. The Temple Police Department chose Integrated Protective Solutions (IPS) to deploy and operate this mobile wireless network from wireless mesh network provider BelAir Networks.
While the city has experienced a development renaissance recently it has also been challenged with crime hotspots where drug trafficking, prostitution, theft and vehicle accidents related to driving under the influence have persisted. To help combat these problems, the police department in Temple upgraded their facilities and chose BelAir Networks wireless mesh technology to support a state of the art video surveillance system and public safety network to deter these activities and offer its residents an enhanced level of public safety.
“On the border between two states we have higher crime rates than neighboring cities and wanted to protect our citizens by adding a high-speed public safety and wireless video security network to increase the eyes on the street. Immediately following installation we already saw a decrease in crime, as the network is a visible deterrent to theft and other crimes,” said Jay Repetto, Chief of Police, Temple Police Department. “We turned to IPS and BelAir Networks to deliver a truly mobile network that can stream video in moving police vehicles and to the headquarters. We have been extremely pleased at the results and how it has improved productivity and efficiency after weeks of deployment.”
Temple Police Department deployed PTZ IP-based CCTV cameras from Security Technology Systems to monitor the areas where crime is the highest. The city also installed 10 cameras in police vehicles which store content for future reference.
Officers in vehicles can stream video in real-time to headquarters or retrieve taped video at speeds of 120 frames a second with no latency -- speeds that match high-definition.
Police officers in the field can also access the network from their vehicles at speeds of over 55 mph. The high-performance broadband wireless network is comprised of BelAir200 quad radio nodes and BelAir100T tri radio nodes ensuring the network, which currently supports Wi-Fi, will be able to upgrade to 4.9 GHz in future expansions. The 4.9 GHz spectrum is dedicated to fixed and mobile public safety services.
“Temple was looking to upgrade security and turned to the latest wireless innovations and we developed a highly flexible network to meet their requirements of reducing crime in key hotspots,” said Scott Mrzywka, managing partner at Integrated Protective Solutions. “After looking at competing solutions, only BelAir Networks was able to offer the mobility we were looking for, meeting the city’s requirement of supporting the high-speed transmission of video footage and voice applications, while traveling at highway speeds.”
In addition to video access, the wireless network also supports VoIP between cars and in-field access to the Georgia Crime Information Center (GCIC) database saving officers critical time when trying to pull up information at the scene of a crime or during a routine DUI stop. Video, voice and data can all reliably and securely operate concurrently over the same network with no latency.