Reducing Violence

Reducing Violence

How security cameras helped King City police improve safety

Situated 51 miles southeast of Salinas, King City, Calif. was incorporated in 1911 as “City of King” in honor of pioneer Charles H. King, whose success at farming created a need for railway access to what became known as King’s Station in 1886. With its beautiful, tree-lined streets and quaint historical downtown, the city serves as a gateway and access point for Pinnacles National Park and the Monterey County wine region. Since the first settlers arrived in the 1880s, King City has grown to a population of about 13,000.

In recent years, however, King City has become known for a different reason; in both 2013 and 2015, the city’s homicide per capita rate for victims between 18 and 22 years of age was the highest in the state of California. The main reason for this is that the city had become a point of contention in a turf war between rival Latino gangs to the north and south of King City.

Welcome on Board

This is the situation Police Chief Robert Masterson walked into when he came on board in July 2016. With a department of 17 sworn officers, including the chief, police faced an uphill climb in curbing this disturbing trend.

“For an average town of about 13,000 people, 17 officers is adequate,” Masterson said. “But for a violent town of 13,000, it’s woefully inadequate.”

Part of the city’s process for addressing the problem was to form a committee of community members charged with producing a plan to reduce King City’s youth violence. After working for six months, the committee came up with a 23-point strategic plan its members felt would alleviate the problem. One of those points was to install video surveillance cameras throughout the city, which Chief Masterson says became a primary focus for his department.

“The idea for a camera system came to light because a city north of us has a camera system,” Masterson said. “When I looked at that and thought about what London and New York have, I saw a benefit of cameras from a prevention standpoint just to deter crime. There was also an investigative aspect that was attractive as well.”

Good Recommendations

Based on a recommendation from systems integrator SurveillanceGrid, the King City Police Department selected Hanwha PNM- 9081VQ 20 megapixel multi-sensor directional cameras.

“I believe in listening to the people I’m paying, so when they said this was the right camera, we took their advice,” Masterson said. “They showed us the resolutions between the Hanwha camera and others on the market, and it was obviously a much better resolution with more frames per second, which provided us better visibility with cleaner and clearer images. The Hanwha cameras gave us a much more detailed image at night.”

With four sensors with 5 megapixel resolution each, the vandal-resistant cameras offer triple codec H.265/H.264/MJPEG, combined with WiseStream II technology for ultimate compression without sacrificing image quality. Bandwidth efficiency is important because the cameras send video wirelessly back to servers located in a command center within the King City Police Department.

The combination of leading-edge compression technologies has also been critical for reducing storage requirements. Initially, the police department used the Hanwha cameras’ on-board motion-based analytic to trigger recording but has since switched to 24/7 recording instead.

“We’ve found that if the cameras are recording all the time, they can often capture images outside of the motion range, so we’d rather fill our hard drives than miss something that may be occurring in the background,” Masterson said.

Capturing Video

In terms of placement, one of King City’s priorities was to install cameras in locations where the police department would be able to capture video of anyone coming into or going out of town. This was important because most of the shootings were perpetrated by people from outside the city.

“When all was said and done, we installed 93 cameras in about a three-and-a-half-mile area, with another 52 planned for phase two. So if you go from one side of our city to the other, we are guaranteed to capture you on camera,” Masterson said. “We publicized the camera system as a deterrent, letting gang members know we’re watching them coming and going from our city.”

The cameras are typically located at intersections the police department determined to be a high priority for traffic flow and points of activity. There are four cameras mounted on a pole or light post at each intersection. Three of the cameras face the intersection, with the fourth looking at the pole itself, “for self-preservation of the camera system,” Masterson said.

Looking for Relevant Information

Video is mostly used for investigative purposes. If an incident occurs, the first thing the police department does is review video to see if any relevant information was captured. This came into play early on, shortly after the first camera pole was installed in late 2017. With information gathered from a camera mounted at a local business, King City Police Department was able to find a vehicle involved in a shooting rather quickly, despite having a limited amount of video to review.

“The vehicle drove by the only camera we had functioning in the city at the time within minutes of the shooting. The Hanwha cameras gave us enough detail that we were able to write a search warrant on a specific vehicle,” Masterson said. “We seized on the deterrent aspect by making sure to include the fact that our one camera captured a shooting in our city in a press release.”

As King City looks to transform itself from a point of contention in a violent gang war to a safe place to live and work, Hanwha cameras have played a key role in the city’s positive results so far.

“We’ve been working to change things, and the Hanwha camera system is working wonders,” Masterson said. “Last year, we had 32 shootings and three homicides but since the cameras were installed, we’ve only had one shooting since the start of the year.”

This article originally appeared in the May/June 2019 issue of Security Today.

Featured

  • DHS Releases Framework for Safe, Secure Deployment of AI in Critical Infrastructure

    The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a set of recommendations for the safe and secure development and deployment of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in critical infrastructure, the “Roles and Responsibilities Framework for Artificial Intelligence in Critical Infrastructure” Read Now

  • Making the Grade with Locks and Door Hardware

    Managing and maintaining locks and door hardware across a school district or university campus is a big responsibility. A building’s security needs to change over time as occupancy and use demands evolve, which can make it even more challenging. Knowing the basics of common door hardware, including locks, panic devices and door closers, can make a difference in daily operations and emergency situations. Read Now

  • Choosing the Right Solution

    Today, there is a strong shift from on-prem installations to cloud or hybrid-cloud deployments. As reported in the 2024 Genetec State of Physical Security report, 66% of end users said they will move to managing or storing more physical security in the cloud over the next two years. Read Now

  • New Report Reveals Top Security Risks for U.S. Retail Chains

    Interface Systems, a provider of security, actionable insights, and purpose-built networks for multi-location businesses, has released its 2024 State of Remote Video Monitoring in Retail Chains report. The detailed study analyzed over 2 million monitoring requests across 4,156 retail locations in the United States from September 2023 to August 2024. Read Now

Featured Cybersecurity

Webinars

New Products

  • Camden CM-221 Series Switches

    Camden CM-221 Series Switches

    Camden Door Controls is pleased to announce that, in response to soaring customer demand, it has expanded its range of ValueWave™ no-touch switches to include a narrow (slimline) version with manual override. This override button is designed to provide additional assurance that the request to exit switch will open a door, even if the no-touch sensor fails to operate. This new slimline switch also features a heavy gauge stainless steel faceplate, a red/green illuminated light ring, and is IP65 rated, making it ideal for indoor or outdoor use as part of an automatic door or access control system. ValueWave™ no-touch switches are designed for easy installation and trouble-free service in high traffic applications. In addition to this narrow version, the CM-221 & CM-222 Series switches are available in a range of other models with single and double gang heavy-gauge stainless steel faceplates and include illuminated light rings. 3

  • Camden CV-7600 High Security Card Readers

    Camden CV-7600 High Security Card Readers

    Camden Door Controls has relaunched its CV-7600 card readers in response to growing market demand for a more secure alternative to standard proximity credentials that can be easily cloned. CV-7600 readers support MIFARE DESFire EV1 & EV2 encryption technology credentials, making them virtually clone-proof and highly secure. 3

  • EasyGate SPT and SPD

    EasyGate SPT SPD

    Security solutions do not have to be ordinary, let alone unattractive. Having renewed their best-selling speed gates, Cominfo has once again demonstrated their Art of Security philosophy in practice — and confirmed their position as an industry-leading manufacturers of premium speed gates and turnstiles. 3