Sep 16, 2014

Dallas is one of the most densely-populated cities in America, boasting 1.2 million citizens in a 385-square mile region. This doesn’t include the nearly 6 million individuals living in metropolitan Dallas. Due to the sheer number of people living in the area and the city’s tight budget, officials faced several obstacles when it came to public safety and crime prevention.

In order to address these issues, the Dallas City Council elected to deploy a wireless video surveillance system from Firetide to keep a better eye on the streets while staying in line with their budget.

A busy area lacking adequate police presence
One of the main issues officials sought to combat with Firetide’s mesh infrastructure technology was the fact that the city is bustling with people, but monetary constraints prevented more officers from being deployed. This was an especially troublesome problem in downtown Dallas, which sees hundreds of thousands of citizens and tourists during the day and night.

“Our goal was to reduce crime in the downtown business district and to combat the perception of inadequate safety measures in the area,” noted Dallas Deputy Police Chief Tom Lawrence.

Quick deployment, added security leads to crime reduction 
Soon after pinpointing the issues, city officials began installation of the Firetide mesh network and wireless surveillance cameras. Overall, the system included 32 Firetide mesh nodes and 40 Sony wireless cameras in Dallas’ central business district. Lawrence said the city was pleasantly surprised at the quick deployment of the system as well as the support for the initiative from the business community in the area.

“While we did not go into the project with the concept of wireless, the benefits quickly became obvious: The mesh enables quick setup of the network without a complete overhaul, while providing excellent bandwidth and strong security for video streams,” Lawrence said.

Soon after the Firetide mesh infrastructure was installed, the city experienced favorable results. Dallas Police Lt. Anthony Crawford told BearCom that the city saw a 37 percent decrease in the uptown crime rate, as well as a 35 percent decrease downtown.

“The wireless video surveillance system is an integral part of the city’s three-pronged approach to public safety, which also includes beat officers and the citizens that live and work in the area,” Crawford said. “The wireless video system has contributed to crime decreases in target areas. I believe an important part of that reduction is due to the presence of the camera system.”