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New Public Safety Complex Uses Vicon’s High-End VideoSurveillance SystemWhen a population explosion and city jail overcrowding made it clear to the city ofHoover, AL, that the current facilities were not going to be enough, the city decided toupgrade its public safety facility two years ago. This meant big changes for all involved.“We’re just a growing city,” says Robin Mangino, detention supervisor at the newHoover Public Safety Center. “We had a population that went from 60,000 to 71,150 in ashort time, and it continues to grow. We had outgrown our small municipal jail and wewere experiencing overcrowding.”The concept behind the new building was to merge the city jail, municipal courts, permitsand engineering facilities, MIS and fire administration all under one large roof. All ofthese departments came to the new facility from individual buildings, with a move-in dateof August 2004.While each organization that would occupy the building came to the table with their ownindividual security needs, designers and planners were able to identify one system thatcould meet everyone’s video surveillance needs. That system was the Vicon KollectorPro series.Putting It TogetherSecurity for the Hoover Public Safety Center is divided into two separate systems. Thedetention center, because of its unique needs and higher security level, is one system, andthe public administration portion is the other.The task of installing the Vicon system and making it work for everyone involved wasgiven to Ruffin Enterprises, Inc. (now named Enhanced Technical Construction), a localsecurity company that routinely bids security control systems for new constructiondetention facilities. The system they implemented for Hoover includes Kollector ProDVRs, Vicon matrix switchers, keyboard controllers, 16-channel multiplexers and VFTpan-tilt-zoom dome cameras.“Their need was to have security surveillance throughout the facility,” says RichardSport, project engineer for Enhanced Technical Construction. “The public administrationarea has a control room and a CCTV surveillance system with 48 cameras, three DVRsand eight monitors. They are monitoring court rooms, corridors, entrances and theparking lot. The detention area (city jail) has over 100 cameras. They have the largersystem, with seven DVRs. They monitor corridors, day rooms, booking, the wholefacility.”Richard Mattis, facilities director for the city of Hoover, is in charge of the publicadministration portion of the building. “Primarily, our greatest need is in the court area,which is where we have most or all of our cameras,” he says. “The other areas we watch
and record are the areas where we take money, such as the revenue department at thewindow, and building inspections.”Probably the biggest difference between the detention portion of the building and theother areas is that Mattis’ portion primarily relies on the recorded history.Mattis was concerned with having a video record of any incident that might occur. Areasof concern, such as the courtroom, have officers posted right there to deter any incident.Detention’s needs were understandably different. “We are a 64-bed facility,” Manginosays. “We monitor around 120 cameras in the whole facility. We monitor all inmatemovement, bookings, cell blocks, property rooms, the medical unit, everything thathappens within the facility 24/7. We also have the capacity to go back and pull video ifthere are any incidents.”These unique needs were met through the type of cameras used. “The biggest thing[detention] was concerned with was the coverage they would get in the area we werelocating the cameras,” he says. “That required us to use more PTZs in several of theircorridors so they could pan and tilt down both corridors. So instead of using fixedcameras at both ends in both directions, we used the PTZ cameras. It was a challenge, butwe got very good coverage of the building,” Sport says.Using the SystemIn practice, the Vicon system has providedmany benefits for all parties involved. “Whatwe had in the past only recorded when youtold it to record,” Mattis says. “Now we arerecording all the time. It writes over itself aftera certain period of time. That’s the biggestdifference right there.”“Our system is pretty sophisticated,” Mattisadds. We have 40 cameras, switchers,networks, DVRs. I have to say that the Vicon system has been very reliable.”Mattis was already familiar with the Vicon product. “When I heard we were going tohave that equipment I was relaxed, knowing that I was getting quality equipment,” hesays. “Quality and reliability of the equipment is more important than anything to me,with the way I am using it.”On the detention side, the new Vicon system was a big change – and a hugeimprovement. “We were really a small Mayberry-type facility before,” Mangino says.“We had cameras, and they did record, but they were time-lapsed. When we went toreview, everyone looked like a robot. It was not an accurate perception when reviewingincidents.”
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