With all the attention given to the proliferation of sophisticated municipal video surveillance systems around the world, it would be easy to assume that almost every major city has implemented a vast network of IP cameras to combat crime. Some of the deployment figures are staggering when you consider that Beijing, China has more than a half million surveillance cameras and London has almost the same covering close to 45 percent of the city’s public spaces. In the United States, Chicago’s Operation Virtual Shield (OVS), a Homeland Security Grid, is composed of more than 600 miles of fiber optics stretching across the city, while Houston and New York City are about equal in their deployment reach and advanced technology.
While the world’s urban map has certainly exploded with video surveillance networks and partnerships with the private sector to get them funded, not every city is where it wants to be when it comes to monitoring its business districts. But just because you don’t own the video network doesn’t mean you can’t be proactive and have a city surveillance plan. Chief Murray Farr, who is the head cop for Arlington, Virginia’s police department, limited technology doesn’t mean limited options.
“The use of video surveillance is extremely limited in Arlington County. While the County uses a relatively extensive camera system for its traffic operations, these cameras are designed to monitor the flow of traffic and to regulate traffic cameras. Very little is recorded, and very little of the recorded that is maintained more than a 24-hour cycle. The County does almost no video surveillance of its County facilities and/or schools,” says Farr, who has been Chief since 2015, but a member of the department for 25 years. “However, whenever we have a criminal case, the Police Department works very closely with its private partners to obtain any of video that may have been captured within the vicinity of the event. We also have contracts with the Metropolitan Transit Authority to obtain video information on the Metro line, along with the Virginia Department of Transportation for the highways in the Commonwealth.”
Despite the lack of a city-wide video surveillance system, Arlington County has still faced with some of the same staggering data storage and analytics issues confronting other large agencies. The police department currently uses an in-car video system and is also exploring the implementation of body-worn cameras. Farr says his agency handles extensive recordings within in its criminal investigations division, maintaining the video tapes and audio for all investigation packages.
“One of the single largest challenges facing the agency is a long-term storage and management of both video and audio data generated by the department. The Library of Virginia has a number of guidelines concerning the retention of audio and video materials marked as evidentiary. These range from 50 to 80 years of mandatory storage. As we evolve with body-worn cameras, there is an expectation that we will be maintaining a significant amount of data which will become exponentially more demanding each year as we have more and more data year-to-year,” adds Far. “As we are very much in the infancy of the body worn camera program, we do not have a handle yet as to how much data is to be maintained for evidence each year but anticipate of a fairly large. The information that is generated from our in-car cameras, for the most part, is destroyed every 90 days other than that information marked for evidence. It is anticipated a much higher degree of evidentiary data will be captured on the body worn camera. However, time will tell.”
Farr sees his department looking to add to its list of technology projects when it comes to things like social media and records management. But he also stresses that very little money for any new projects is expected to flow through grant monies. The majority was either funded through our normal budget, seized assets or capital bonds.
For agencies like Arlington and others looking to chart their technology and partnership roadmap for evolving Public Safety projects, the upcoming Secured Cities Conference (www.securedcites.com) is a must attend event. It is the only public/private partnership initiative discussion for peer groups seeking answers on technology, funding, business outreach and peer experience best practices.
As conference director, I invite you to attend this affordable and most valuable security event in Houston on November 15-17.
