Video surveillance is not just about watching. It’s about seeing, providing awareness, looking ahead and solving problems—sometimes even before they occur. Public areas have always been targets for vandalism, and while often labeled as a “victim-less crime,” the costs of continually repairing and replacing city property add up quickly.
Protecting Public Property
Parks, public squares, shopping centers, and the like are public gathering places by design. Unfortunately, not everyone who gathers has wholesome intentions, and nuisance crime becomes an issue that takes more and more effort to curtail.
An effective, well-designed municipal surveillance system includes more than cameras. New, innovative uses of modern technology can provide:
- Immediate audio intervention utilizing loudspeakers
- Smart alarms that alert the right people at the right time
- Infrared or other sensors that work in the dark, too
- License plate reading and city-wide camera tracking that can follow a suspect while law enforcement responds
This type of surveillance serves as a force-multiplier, allowing monitoring personnel to effectively deal with problems as they happen, and freeing up officers or other responders for more critical situations. This foundation allows for better, faster response to nuisance crime and vandalism, and is proven to reduce overall costs associated with suppression and repair.
Recouping costs
Besides providing real-time video and response capability, Leverage DETECT also maintains a sophisticated incident library, archiving forensic recordings that can provide evidence for recovering damages or prosecuting offenders, as shown in the following videos:
When surveillance is unified and available at all times to public safety responders and other community stakeholders, the benefits are exponentially multiplied. Expand that system to include businesses and schools who participate in order to improve response time during critical incidents, and you have a true municipal-wide surveillance network.
This vision can be a reality, and it begins with leadership and a foundation based on a Peer-to-Peer IP Surveillance Architecture, patented by LEVERAGE Information Systems.
