Video Surveillance
Public safety consistently ranks among the top concerns facing cities. Whether or not residents feel safe is one of the key measures they use in determining whether their elected officials are doing a good job.
It’s a concern that mayors take to heart. The National League of Cities analyzed mayors’ speeches and found the topic of public safety comes up 37 percent of the time. It’s mentioned more than three times as often as technology, although cities are turning to technology to help people feel safer.
Frequently that technology is video cameras, which will become easier to deploy and monitor in real-time with the arrival of 5G connectivity. But while people want to be safe, they also want some degree of privacy. A sweeping smart cities development on Toronto’s waterfront has been delayed and scaled back because of privacy concerns.
Cities that have managed to walk that line have used cameras to address problems where the public is making loud calls for action. One case is a city in California’s Bay Area that was plagued with illegal dumping. The city doesn’t want to be named, but it was struggling to deal with 200 illegal dumping sites. It tried patrols and erecting warning signs, but finally turned to cameras and license plate readers after the clean-up costs hit $1 million and dozens of citizens called daily to complain.
It ended up using mobile, solar-powered units that capture round-the-clock video and license plate data. The city’s supervising environmental services specialist said that people “were curious to see if and how they worked” — and they have.
“Zero service requests in the areas they’ve been deployed. These units have made a great impact on wherever they’ve been deployed,” he added.
The units can send police immediate alerts when someone enters a no-go zone and can be easily redeployed if another area starts to pose problems. Dumping complaints have now dropped to a mere trickle.
Cameras, license plate readers and the like can make a difference, but privacy experts say that cities do need to take a long-term view and consider how they fit into other smart cities work. They’re becoming easier to install and monitor, which makes it easier to use them to address immediate challenges. But without a clear understanding of how to handle the data they collect, they can end up creating new privacy challenges.
With the proliferation of video surveillance systems implemented by communities, public safety, businesses and citizens alike, consider the implications of all that information. At IWCE 2020, video surveillance will be covered in several sessions and panel discussions, including “Video Solutions for Safer Cities” and “New Technologies Paving the Way for Public Safety Industry”. Our expert speakers will examine how agencies across the country have developed public-private partnerships to help manage video infrastructure, with the right spectrum, analytics, storage and policies.
