THE FIRETIDE BLOG

Combat crime with wireless mesh networks

Aug 05, 2015

2015-08-05 Wireless Mesh Neighborhoods.jpgVideo surveillance is one of the best tools that public safety officials have against crime. In one U.S. city, citizens are taking crime surveillance into their own hands. Local news company WISN reported that residents of the south side of Milwaukee, Wisconsin took it upon themselves to install video surveillance cameras throughout the neighborhood in an effort to catch the perpetrators of crimes. Citizens felt like unlawful behavior in the neighborhood was egregious, installed the video cameras and scheduled a community meeting so they could discuss the need to beef up the security in the area.

Homemade surveillance systems aside, communities need to know they’re being protected from these kinds of infractions. USA Today reported thatmore small towns and cities are beginning to use these kinds of systems to keep tabs on their neighborhoods. For instance, Saginaw, Michigan installed 17 video cameras at the local skate park to help combat crime. Video cameras are seen by many as an important tool for law enforcement.

Protect and strengthen your network with mesh
For these types of video camera systems to work, they need to be powerful enough to transmit high quantities of data. Security is also an issue. While the city streets are being protected with surveillance cameras, the system itself may be vulnerable. According to ZoneAlarm, wireless systems may be more susceptible to hacking because some don’t require passwords or authentication.

One way to augment your wireless surveillance system is to utilize mesh technology. Mesh offers enough bandwidth to reliably transmit video footage through the network, and it also provides an extra level of inherent security. This ultimately leads to law enforcement officials being able to better access the video feeds without compromising the safety of the community.

Mission, Texas gets a boost from mesh
Firetide’s mesh solutions help communities bolster their public security. For instance, in Mission, Texas, safety officials installed a wireless surveillance system that helped the city’s 80,000 residents feel more secure.

“Wireless greatly speeds deployment and simplifies installation, allowing us to deploy many more cameras in strategic locations throughout the city than we could with a conventional wired surveillance network,” said Mission Police Chief Marin Garza Jr.

He went on to describe how with this technology, emergency response crews can get to the scene of a crime more quickly because of faster bandwidth speeds – and because they’re wireless, these cameras can be placed where they are most needed.

Contact Firetide today to see how our solutions can help make your city a safer, better place.


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Category: Public Safety

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