By Daniel Gelinas, associate editor
Adoptionof public surveillance has been slow to spread for a number of reasons. Chief among them is the “Big Brother” privacy argument. However, according to many, this aversion to widespread public video monitoring is changing, and that’s very good news in a slow economy for a struggling security industry. Not only does it mean more installations, but, in many cases, the municipalities don’t have anyone to watch the cameras, so they are contracting with private alarm firms to do the monitoring for them.
Communities like Atherton (where police are currently waging a campaign to tie in private, residential CCTV and IP-video systems to the municipal system) and El Cerrito, Calif., Birmingham, Ala., and St. Louis, to name a few, have large-scale municipal surveillance programs in place and indicate the genesis of a trend.
Ojo Technology security solution advisor Bob Kusche likens the
to about having cameras around and I think most have accepted that out in public areas there is no expectation of privacy.”
Further, communities are looking to the security industry to help fight that crime and monitor those cameras.
In early 2008, the Office of the Mayor in Birmingham, Ala., hired systems integrator ION Interactive Video Technologies, an IP-based video and security solutions provider, to install surveillance cameras in various outdoor locations across the city. According to Richard Cruit,
vice president of ION, the city also asked ION to remotely monitor all of the installed cameras from the company’s own control center, a rare opportunity for a private monitoring company. “Municipalities normally set up their own monitoring stations within the police station,” Cruit said. “We’ve got a very unusual arrangement with the city of Birmingham. They basically thought we could do it better.”
Cruit explained that while the
situation with ION in Birmingham is not industry standard, more opportunities are opening up, and the current expectation of public surveillance to promote safety is spreading rapidly into the private sector. “This is good for the industry. No doubt about that. With the municipal contracts come more commercial contracts. Because as the municipalities bring these systems online, there’s more awareness of
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Harry meet Sally
—Richard Cruit, ION
increasing acceptance and quickening spread of surveillance at the municipality level to the explosion of Web commerce. “It is akin to when big business first encountered the Internet,” Kusche said. “Everyone was scratching their heads wondering how to use the technology. Security is only now starting to do the same thing with IP-enabled cameras, sensors, and other related hardware.” Kusche also points to public opinion as proof that acceptance will continue to increase.
“Polls show a 98 percent approval rating by the public for cameras placed in public areas,” Kusche said. “Ojo Technology presented a ‘Video 911’ presentation to 27 police departments last August in conjunction with the Atherton Police Department. That’s a lot of interest.”
According to California Alarm Association past president Jon Sargent, who is with ADT Industry Relations-West, quicker adoption of video surveillance solutions at the municipality level is a natural extension of a shift in priorities. Safety and security are now of paramount importance in reaction to heightened crime and more desperate criminals. “I have actually heard more people comment at city council meetings that they want more cameras in certain areas. Crime, and in particular violent crime, has gotten to the point where people are now willing to allow just about any tools available to fight crime,” Sargent said. “People just don’t care like they used
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