The Town of Cape Elizabeth in Maine vacillates between a comfy community of less than 10,000 to a coveted tourist and international 10K race location brimming with elite runners, but its goals remain steadfast: to provide a safe community for residents and visitors.
The Town of Cape Elizabeth marks the entrance to Casco Bay, an inlet of the Gulf of Maine. It’s an East Coast-destination that can swell with visitors, tourists and sports enthusiasts throughout the year, especially during summer months. The town hosts the annual Beach to Beacon 10-K international race that draws runners from around the globe. Located near Portland, it’s the stopping point of many cruise ships when docked in port and also home to Portland Light Head, one of the world’s most photographed lighthouses.
The town operates under the “One-Town Concept,” in order to preserve services at the least cost – for example, the Facilities Department is responsible for all town buildings, including the school campus, and is funded by both the school department and non-school department budgets. Similarly, the Information Technology Department is operated out of the school department with partial non-school department funding but is responsible for technology needs town-wide.
“We have separate facilities, but work cohesively on security and safety,” says Police Chief Neil Williams. “We don’t have any of the immediate and ongoing threats of a larger city, but work together in protecting all our buildings and facilities,” he says.
What began as a call for service quickly morphed into updating security throughout the town and at the Cape Elizabeth Schools (which include a high school, middle school, and Pond Cove Elementary School) with upgraded, integrated access control with lockdown capabilities, video surveillance, intercom and audio recording. With Advance Technology Inc. (ATI) of Scarborough, Maine at the helm of the installation and specification, Cape Elizabeth quickly bolstered security throughout the community, making it safer for both residents and visitors while giving it the ability to proactively address potential incidents.
Multi-Phase Upgrade Process
There were numerous challenges to legacy security systems on site. At the school, which required surveillance primarily for safety and vandalism, a black and white analog system recorded to a cumbersome and antiquated DVR, causing numerous problems with reliability and playback. An existing access control solution was not functioning properly and required extensive management of cards, keys and doors system wide. According to Greg Marles, Director of Facilities and Transportation for the Town and school department of Cape Elizabeth, the prior system was difficult to operate, with numerous, time-consuming steps required to activate a single card – some 15 minutes each.
“If we did not close out the program correctly each time it would not take the updates that we had painstakingly created. With these challenges and others, we reverted back to issuing keys to doors, rather than use the system,” he says.
Marles said the overriding goal of the new specification was to create a manageable security access control system that would be user-friendly, easily programmable and flexible to meet the needs of the town and school departments. “We wanted a single point of control for all access levels for the town and school facilities,” he says. Cape Elizabeth doesn’t have a dedicated security command center, but both Marles and the police chief now have remote access to cameras and recorded video feeds.
Williams says it was critical for the entire town to be on a single, integrated access control system for accountability and the ability to selectively limit and restrict access. “Teachers may have access to a certain area and not the entire school, but the police would have unrestricted access or remote access in the event of an emergency,” he says. “We also put the police evidence room on access control to know who comes and goes. If someone who doesn’t have access tries to gain entrance, we get an email or text message of the activity. And the system is definitely meeting our needs. We had a couple incidents at the school where video assisted the investigation and led to an apprehension,” he says.
Williams says the proximity/hands-free access control also incorporates barcode scanners on some cards for accountability of employees, like custodians to track who’s on duty and when. “It’s so easy to retrieve data from the access control system,” he adds.
The Fire Department is also benefitting from the data and accountability of the system, according to Chief Peter Gleeson. “The access control is a great tool and allows us to track who enters the fire station,” Gleeson says. “The building is not always staffed so it’s great to know who is in the building and when they enter. And the video cameras allow us to monitor the apparatus bay where we have critical and valuable equipment.”
Project: Phase 1
The first phase of the project was to upgrade access control at the three schools. The former access control database was prone to system corruption and was not user-friendly. To alleviate those challenges, ATI installed a new Software House C•CURE 9000 platform to manage the properties. During the installation process, which spanned more than one year, eight different locations were eventually added to the access control specification, including the Fire Department, Police Station, Transfer Station/Public Works and Town Hall.
The installation at the Town Hall was extremely challenging, due to the structure’s age and original construction materials. Lead technicians at Advance Technology were able to integrate the technology and wiring cleanly and aesthetically into the woodwork and structure.
“Dealing with an older building is always a challenge and you want to blend your work with the architecture,” Lindner says. “I tried to fish the wires around the existing framework of the doors when installing the card readers and use as little conduit as possible. Wherever we could, we fished wires instead of running conduit.”
Cape Elizabeth’s former camera system recorded to an antiquated DVR system that reduced functionality and caused numerous problems. One incident, Marles recalls, stemmed from the theft of a non-system-connected DVR at the Transfer Station/Public Works. Culprits broke in and stole the recorder.
ATI installed a loaner NVR to illustrate to Marles the latest technologies and capabilities and a networked device that would ultimately enhance connectivity and system uptime. Now, cameras stream video back to the main server for the town.
“We’ve been working closely with Marles and the Town of Cape Elizabeth to make sure the upgraded solution meets their current and future needs,” says Jeff LaChance, senior account executive with ATI. “We worked collaboratively with them and gave them ideas and suggestions, looking at their overall organization and what they wanted and needed to accomplish,” he says. “We put together the highest quality solution for them, within budget,” he adds. The funding for the project came from the school and town budgets as well the annual budgeting process.
Other highlights of the installation included:
- At the police station, ATI added audio recording ability to the video system for interrogation and to assist with covert camera deployment.
- Several 180- and 360-degree megapixel cameras were deployed in numerous places throughout the town including the school gymnasium, parking lot, and waste management areas.
- One challenge brought to ATI was that upon a fire alarm, access control card holders were able to walk back into the building, presenting a huge risk. ATI’s Lead Engineer Dave Boston came up with a creative solution by integrating the access control solution with the fire alarm system. Upon a fire alarm notification, only specific user’s cards can enter the building during the event until the system is reset by authorized individuals.
- In an effort to control visitors at the school, ATI integrated cameras and intercoms at each entrance. The cameras feed video back to five different locations, allowing multiple users to respond to intercom activity. All visitors are verified with audio conversation and video before entry is granted.
- The NVR system has user administration abilities that allow only specific users to conduct tasks on the video system. For instance, each video user from each building can only see their cameras. Some are able to view live only and others can play back video. The Chief of Police can see all cameras when necessary in the case of a school or town emergency.
Marles says the town plans to expand the system to cover more access points and to eventually eliminate the need for keys across its entire footprint. And the access control system is the perfect solution for them to do just that.
“The scalable nature of C•CURE 9000 makes it ideal for places such as Cape Elizabeth who need their security system to grow as their facilities expand,” says Jason Ouellette, product line director of Access Control, Tyco Security Products. “That scalability plus C•CURE’s powerful integration platform allowed the experienced technical team at ATI to provide the customer with a holistic view of security that enables future-proof growth.”
Other technicians who assisted or played a role in the Town of Cape Elizabeth installation included Lead Technician Travis Bean and Service Supervisor Michelle Leach.
Remedies and results
“The system has performed above my expectations,” Marles says. “Like any other business or municipality, we need to make quick adjustments and last minute changes to access and permission levels. We had a situation where a coach needed access to a practice facility due to a last minute schedule change and we were able to make the adjustment in minutes.”
Rob Simopoulos, president of ATI, says his company excels at engineering a targeted solution to meet any user’s needs as well as providing superior, after-service support, which they call their White Glove Service. “Now with the launch of the National Systems Contractors Association (NSCA) Partner Alliance For Safer Schools (PASS) program, we plan to follow its fundamentals and continue to work closely with Cape Elizabeth and other school districts to help design and implement security solutions.” After evaluating the new PASS guidelines, ATI will become an early adopter of those guidelines and has signed on as an endorsing organization. The Security Industry Association (SIA) and NSCA launched the initiative to foster a coordinated approach to protecting students, staff and a wide range of stakeholders while implementing guidelines for the use of electronic security and life safety equipment in schools.
"Our high level of technology expertise helped the Town of Cape Elizabeth become more efficient with its security and provide a safer community overall. We’re proud to be part of these efforts,” Simopoulos says.
