Smile for the Camera

With the rise in crime across the country and budget cuts to law enforcement, both at state and local levels, many cities are installing video surveillance cameras, particularly in high-crime areas, in hopes of heightening security.

In May, the security industry's website, SecurityInfoWatch.com, hosted a conference in Atlanta, where 160 attendees were able to network with local leaders and security manufacturers and learn about implementing municipal surveillance, from design and installation to procurement and funding.

Secured Cities Atlanta offered two primary education tracks: Operations/Management, which focused on budget, manpower and city policies, and a Technical track focusing on systems integration and design and the IT components of system implementation.

"Cities like Atlanta and Chicago are putting up cameras in key business districts and intersections where they can monitor for crime in progress, and also go back and look at the video at a later time," says Geoffrey Kohl, editor-in-chief of SecurityInfoWatch.com and conference director for Secured Cities. "Although Atlanta hasn't gone live quite yet, they'll put video monitors next to the 9-1-1 dispatch center where all the calls are coming in, so they can use that video integration center as an incident management location. Eventually, they'll be able to pull up video most closely associated with a 9-1-1 call. If they get a call for a man shot and bleeding near an intersection, the technology will allow them to associate the nearest public camera in that zone and bring it up to see if the scene is safe for first responders or if it's an ongoing situation."

Because it's too expensive to monitor the cameras at all times, most of them are monitored selectively by local law enforcement, or, as Atlanta will do, by public/private partnerships funded by local businesses, says Kohl.

Paying for camera installation calls for some creativity, Kohl adds. "Some cities have received USI grants--a federal DHS-type grant program--but most smaller cities have to fund it on their own. Some might get DHS dollars, because the use qualifies as public safety, while others use private industry funds or simply take it out of the general or police funds, but that's rare. Another source comes from vehicles, assets and drug money seized by law enforcement, where the proceeds are used to fund cameras."

There has been some resistance from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), says Kohl, and that's a legimate concern, because everyone wants to live in a free nation. But when the reasoning behind the cameras is explained to local residents, they usually become advocates. "Cameras are typically put up in locations that have crime problems," he says, "and most residents want a safe neighborhood like anyone else.

"The most important thing, I think, is that it's not just a matter of buying these systems for security," he adds. "Cities that have funds and are technology-savvy can use them as multipurpose systems for both security and dispatch information that alerts first responders to an unsafe scene."

For more information on video surveillance and upcoming conferences, go to securedcities.com.