Sep 02, 2014

Before the installation of an all-encompassing municipal video surveillance system, law enforcement in Redlands, California, had significant difficulties monitoring parts of the community, particularly its parks. According to Campus Safety Magazine, this was especially true for Prospect Park, a wooded recreational area not unlike New York’s Central Park.

Due to the vast area the park covered, coupled with the natural cover provided by the trees and vegetation, police officers ran into numerous challenges as they attempted to monitor and protect citizens in the area. Campus Safety Magazine stated that before the deployment of the surveillance system, the park saw 354 law enforcement incidents from May 2009 to April 2010. These included 172 events which required a response from officers, and another 182 that called for intervention by an authority figure. Since there was not yet a surveillance system in place, none of these events were recorded.

Thankfully, this all changed when then Chief of Police Jim Bueermann took a trip to Israel, where he was first introduced to video surveillance technology. After he returned, Bueermann lead the push to deploy a similar setup within Redlands, which would feature the use of wireless cameras on an overarching network.

Encryption protection

According to Forbes, the resulting surveillance system included the installation of a mesh network for the cameras, as well as camera nodes and encryption for protection. After discovering that the nodes could be easily accessible to outsiders, WEP encryption was established to better protect the system.

“Our cameras only capture something happening in public view, so we weren’t incredibly concerned,” said Chris Catren, Redlands police operations commander. “[W]e encrypted all the feeds out of an abundance of caution. There’s a high degree of support from the community and we wanted to avoid any fall-out.”

Marked improvement

With the new mesh network surveillance system and encryption in place, law enforcement saw a marked difference in security, especially with Prospect Park. Officials were able to record 573 incidents in the park over the course of a year, with the majority being addressed and solved remotely or by a camera operator.

Campus Security Magazine pointed out that one of the biggest benefits of the surveillance system was law enforcement’s ability to resolve problems without having to dispatch an officer. This allowed them to divert efforts to where they were needed most.

A municipal surveillance system can make all the difference within a community, especially when deployed with the help ofFiretide. Firetide offers mesh infrastructure systems similar to the one utilized by the Redlands police department, which for them, has made all the difference.