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Video surveillance in Memphis

Hikvision has teamed up with the Memphis Police Department (MPD) to protect the residents of Memphis, Tennessee, in the USA. Using a variety of security solutions to prevent and reduce crime, since 2007 MPD has deployed hundreds of analogue and IP cameras and dozens of recorders from Hikvision to keep the city safe.

With incidents now being captured on high-quality video, MPD has noted an increase in criminal cases being taken to court. The city has also built a Real Time Crime Centre where they can view live video feeds and provide critical information to officers before they arrive at a crime scene.

Kenneth Shackleford, former technology manager at MPD who has subsequently retired from the force, developed a surveillance programme to monitor Memphis’ critical infrastructure. “I started looking at ways that we could start installing cameras throughout the city,” Shackleford said. He is now vice president of sales at SkyCop, a trusted local integrator that specialises in law enforcement, military, and private industry installations.

The SkyCop team and MPD decided on three configurations: cameras attached to utility poles, cameras attached to buildings and mobile trailers. To date, the police department has established a network of about 600 of Hikvision’s analogue and IP bullet and dome PTZ cameras throughout the city. Building exteriors, for example, are often outfitted with the DS-2CD2032-I, a 3-MP outdoor bullet camera with a body type that allows for easy mounting. This camera also offers line crossing and intrusion detection features to make surveillance more effective. These features can send alerts to the police when someone enters or leaves a designated area.

Hikvision’s DarkFighter PTZ camera is also in use. With smart features such as detection of region entrance/exit and detection of audio loss, the DarkFighter thrives in challenging low-light environments and features 120 dB wide dynamic range as well as a sharp 23x optical zoom lens with autofocus. These elements help to provide clear colour images day and night – making the DarkFighter ideal for 24-hour surveillance applications.

The footage from these cameras, which are placed at strategic points around Memphis, flows back to the MPD Real Time Crime Centre (RTCC). The RTCC is used to enhance security for city assets and infrastructure and has become a sophisticated way for the city to fight crime.

“We have a video wall with dozens of monitors and we can pull up any camera feed in the city,” said Sergeant Joseph Patty, who has succeeded Shackleford as the video surveillance manager for MPD. “We have about 30 workstations out on the floor that can view the video wall or pull up any camera feed.”

MPD has experienced noticeable benefits from their citywide surveillance programme. “We have four or five cases prosecuted each week thanks to these incidents being captured on video,” Sergeant Patty said. “Plus, we’re able to dispatch calls from the RTCC and view live video before the officer even arrives on the scene.”

Jeffrey He, president of Hikvision USA and Hikvision Canada, commented on the increased prevalence of Hikvision products in the law enforcement and safe cities verticals. “As more municipalities use video surveillance to protect their citizens, they turn to Hikvision for highly scalable, easy to use products at the forefront of state-of-the-art video surveillance technology.”

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