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Panomera supports Essen police

Essen has decided to use Panomera technology to support its police force in the pursuit of their mission to protect after the success of a similar video system in Cologne. Now the law enforcement authorities can rely on a powerful video surveillance system which will make its work of the police significantly easier.

Until now, it seemed that the only logical way to successfully guarantee full coverage of large open spaces with visibility challenges was to set up large systems consisting of as many cameras as possible. Unfortunately, in most cases it was found that such an approach can be prohibitively expensive.

The Panomera multifocal sensor system was specially developed for the all-encompassing video surveillance of expansive areas. With Panomera, huge widths, as well as areas with long distances can be displayed with a completely new resolution quality, in real time and at high frame rates of up to 30 fps from a single location. At the same time, the resolution is scalable so that it can fulfil the respective police observation mission in every respect.

Rheinischer Platz, Essen

The Essen Police Force chose a district in the northern part of the inner city, described as a focal point for criminal activity as the first deployment site for the new video solution. "The people in that district feel significantly less safe, so this is why we installed a video observation system in that area, known as the Rheinischer Platz,” explains a police spokesperson. The camera housings installed around the square are equipped with up to eight different lenses, thus replacing as many as 30 individual cameras.

The primary objective of the project was to strengthen the residents' sense of safety and to ensure that particularly the entrance to the underground railway there was no longer perceived as frightening. Passive video surveillance used elsewhere in the past has already proven inadequate for this purpose. With the active video surveillance made possible by the Dallmeier systems, now the law enforcement forces in Essen have also embarked on a new, sustained approach to crime prevention and criminal investigation. The first successes, which excited media interest, have included foiling an imminent bank robbery and arrests linked to the selling of narcotics.

Instead of simply having to assume that a large number of installed surveillance cameras would somehow bring about a significant reduction in criminality, the police in Essen now have the capability to carry out targeted, active video observation. Potentially dangerous situations are detected even before they threaten to become incidents in a police statistics report. Fast response forces are alerted rapidly and guided to the site of interest. And if a criminal offence is committed ‘under the noses’ of the police, Panomera supplies conclusive information which can be used as evidence in a court of law and as the basis for criminal investigations.

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