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In the shadows of the Dragon
China’s booming bodyguard
and security industry
The use of social media
in emergencies
Peter Lockwood
The Navy’s Commodore
Senior Officer West Australia
CCTV
The commercial argument
for security technologies
and missing links of flight MH370
FEATURE
INTERVIEW
3. 40 | Australian Security Magazine
G
rowing community concerns throughout much of
the country were raised on issues being from the lack
of police presence and the amount of juveniles that
were freely roaming the streets unsupervised. Youths were
commonly observed loitering all hours of the day and night,
frequently under the influence of alcohol or other substances.
Fighting and assault were becoming all too common and
many public spaces were now being construed as unsafe by
communities.The lack of lighting in some areas were deemed
to increase incidents of violence and a lot of public spaces
with many buildings acting as gathering points for would-be
and opportunistic offenders.The perception of crime was also
high and affected how the community as a whole utilised
public spaces and retail areas.
The experience in the Queensland city of Ipswich was
no different and Ipswich City Council decided to commence
its own public safety program, with the assistance of various
community groups, police and consultants.They would devise
and provide support for a range of long term community
safety issues within public spaces.The Council’s vision was
to instigate a strategic plan and adopt a mission and vision
for the city that would enhance the living, working and
recreational environment of Ipswich, in addition to providing
efficient and effective client focused services to its community.
Ipswich City Council had previously hired part-time
security in the Central Business District (CBD) and it was
noted that since the introduction of security, there appeared to
be a decrease in anti-social behaviour and crimes of opportunity.
In January 1994, Ipswich City Council determined to
address safety and security issues in its CBD. At the time,
the business community generally agreed on common issues,
mainly being the lack of both police and police response,
taking on average 22 minutes. A consultant was engaged and
an intensive security audit was carried out, as well as, various
meetings with community groups, including police, local
businesses and residents.
One such meeting at the time was with a local youth
group who indicated they had a fear of using the city.Their
main fears were of being assaulted and robbed.They also
felt that alcohol played a major role in this unacceptable
behaviour. At other meetings, businesses voiced concerns
that loitering youths negatively impact on their business and
groups of youths appeared intimidating to older members of
the community.
A committee was established comprising of recognised
key stakeholders, including representatives from Ipswich City
Council, police, community groups and businesses. Round
one of the program was to have an immediate presence in
the streets, particularly of an evening with not only increased
police and security patrols, but representation of community
The beginning of the end:
Public Safety Initiative - Ipswich
City Council
The beginning of the end:
Public Safety Initiative - Ipswich
City Council
The early 1990s invigorated various initiatives in public safety, from Crime Prevention Through
Environmental Design (CPTED) to community partnerships, educational programs and the
then, newly arrived Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) systems.
By
Larry Waite
CCTV
4. Australian Security Magazine | 41
CCTV
groups that could engage with youth to offer assistance and
advice where required.This engagement by the community
groups would lead to assistance with many issues including
employment, drugs and alcohol, domestic violence and
accommodation needs.
Hotels and nightclubs were also recruited to assist in the
reduction of alcohol related violence which would be achieved
through the responsible service of alcohol and critical
communications with the police and security patrols ensuring
patron safety.
To overview and assist with deployment of security
and police response, a series of cameras were also installed.
These cameras were to be monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days
a week, and were to be proactively engaged by the operators,
that is, the operators would methodically select each camera
and utilise the pan tilt zoom (PTZ) function to analyse an
area ensuring the protection of the public and its property
in public spaces. If anti-social behaviour or activities were
determined by the operator to be a threat to public safety, or
indeed an offence, the matter was reported to security and or
police for attention.
The system at the time (initially nine cameras) was
recorded on VHS tape and kept for 30 days.
This would, during the next 20 years, grow exponentially
into one of the country’s largest and most successful Public
Safety Surveillance Systems.
A strict governance procedure on the release and viewing
of footage was also implemented to ensure that both evidence
and privacy concerns were met. Each of the operators was
to be licenced security personnel with additional training in
detecting and determining what constitutes an offence, as
well as public nuisance or public disorder.
Very quickly the cameras proved to be a valuable tool
in the detection of crime and a key component in assisting
police with the prioritisation of a response to an incident or
situation. Within a few months, a new control room had been
completed to house not only the CCTV operators (Safe City
Monitoring Facility), but a shared area with Police, being the
first Ipswich Police Beat Office.
The area set aside for the control room was ergonomically
set up to ensure that monitors were 2.5 times their
diameter away from where the operators were seated and
that images were of a high quality to provide accurate
details and identification of any would be offenders or
suspects.These images were also cabled up live to the Police
Communications room to assist with the prioritisation of
responses after hours.
During the day, police were stationed in the front area of
the Monitoring Facility, the Police Beat, and made for a rapid
response to an incident.This relationship was so effective that
the police response time quickly dropped from the average 22
minutes to within two minutes.
In the first few months, break and enters into businesses
were observed by the CCTV operators almost every weekend.
This soon stopped, as did bag snatches, car thefts and public
order offences.The courts in Ipswich found themselves
immersed into the ‘new’ technology that is CCTV and for the
first time, could actually see the ferocity of an assault and the
intent of an offender.This made for more fitting sentencing
and in-turn public awareness of offenders being caught and
5. 42 | Australian Security Magazine
duly sentenced.The implementation of better lighting, clear
sight lines coupled with more cameras followed, as did the
reduction in the perception of crime.
In 2005, the Safe City Monitoring Facility and the
Police Beat Office were relocated to a much larger, 300 m2
building.The new fit-out did away with the matrix system
and eventually, video tapes. Modern digital head ends,
complete with a Video Management Systems (VMS) and
Network Video Recorders (NVR) were now in place. A path
forward with communications was sought and optical fibre
connectivity was elected as the main means of transporting
the three, five megabytes per second (Mbps) images from
each camera, now numbering well over 100.
During the years that followed, fibre paths were tunnelled
back to the new facility ensuring optimum image quality with
no visible latency. A CCTV operator’s dream.
Moving on 20 years later, the Safe City Monitoring
Facility now has approximately 240 public safety surveillance
cameras on a standalone, predominately fibre network.There
are another 280 mainly static cameras that are protecting
council’s assets.These are on a different network and record
to a series of local Digital Video Recorders.These are for a
more reactive approach to security as opposed to the proactive
engagement that the Safe City Monitoring Facility employs.
Ipswich City Council’s Safe City camera system is
now rolled out to many public spaces throughout some 12
suburbs of Ipswich.The cameras view literally thousands of
locations, with trained operators constantly engaging the
cameras 24/7, scanning for anything that is a danger to the
public or property.
The cameras range from analogue to digital (High
Definition) with a Network Video Recording system now
encompassing approximately 200 terra bytes (TB) of hard
drive storage. Each of the camera’s images records digitally
in full 25fps, D1 (4Cif) quality and are streaming somewhere
between 3.5Mbps and 5.5Mbps each.
The Video Management System allows for ease of image
archiving and retrieval.The video wall houses some 28, 52”
screens split into sixes, allowing for up to 168 cameras to be
viewed on the wall at any given time. During the years, Safe
City has proven that a six screen split on each 52”screen, as
opposed to a nine or 12 is more efficient and effective in the
identification and detection of incidents. Many considerations
attributed to this finding, including the distance from the seats
to the monitors, as well as the angles and heights of the screens.
A running computer log of incidents, observations, radio
and phone calls as well as visiting guests is kept by operators.
This permits statistics to be generated on a regular basis to
assist police with the allocation of resources, as well as the
Safe City Program in determining new and emerging hot
spots and areas or other areas of concern.
The cameras, like a security net thrown over an area and
with each knot in the net being a camera, has assisted police
numerous times in identifying suspects and apprehending
criminals. In fact, there have been more than 7,000 arrests as
a direct result of information received (and footage) by the
Safe City Operators since its inception in 1994.
In some more serious cases, footage captured by the
cameras have assisted with placing a suspect in the vicinity of
the crime or establishing a time line.This has been successful
in at least two murders, though not occurring in the camera
coverage areas, the footage could clearly identify the time
and place of a suspect or victim as they travelled through
the safety net of cameras and assisted police in creating a
timeline of events.
The usefulness of CCTV footage for police prosecution
and investigation purposes has become a standard in today’s
policing and is utilised on a daily basis. In Ipswich, footage
is reviewed hundreds of times a year by police and an
average of 30 incidents are requested per month by police
for investigation and or prosecution purposes. Every year
Ipswich City Council’s Safe City Monitoring Facility reports
more than 1,500 incidents in regards to public safety and it’s
not all crime.
The facility often locates missing people, animals that may
cause harm to themselves or others, such as a deer running
down the main street or a snake on a footpath, to burst
water mains, loads that have fallen from vehicles, flood water
monitoring and many more – too numerous to mention.
The offences detected differ greatly from yesteryear, with
most offences detected now being public nuisance, drink
driving or locating a wanted person.
With the success of the CCTV and policing strategies,
Ipswich no longer has a need for night time security patrols
and has seen a major decrease in the seriousness of crimes
in the camera coverage areas.The perception of crime has
been greatly reduced with the assistance of carefully designed
public spaces with clear sight lines and sufficient lighting,
a consistent police presence and alert CCTV operators.
Although crimes are still detected, the installation of the
CCTV system in Ipswich has greatly reduced this and as
a result, made Ipswich one the most sophisticated CCTV
systems in the country and one of the safest shopping
environments in Queensland.
About the Author
Laurence (Larry) Waite, Safe City Security
Coordinator, has performed services within
the security industry for more than 25
years. He is specialised in CCTV and has
performed services for the Ipswich Safe City Program since
1994. He has also worked with organisations such as the
Brisbane City Council’s City Safe Program, Queensland
Rail, Southbank Parklands, Swanbank Power Station and
Arthur Gory Correctional Centre. Larry has received a
range of commendations and letters of appreciation for his
professionalism over the years, including for his services in
assisting the Queensland Police Service, Crime Stoppers
and City of Ipswich.
CCTV
‘Ipswich City Council’s Safe City camera system is now
rolled out to many public spaces throughout some 12 suburbs
of Ipswich. The cameras view literally thousands of locations,
with trained operators constantly engaging the cameras 24/7,
scanning for anything that is a danger to the public or property.’
6. Australian Security Magazine | 43
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