Wakefield Metropolitan District Council faces antisocial behaviour in outlying, smaller, town centres not covered by its CCTV fibre networks. The council’s Enforcement division turned to wireless live video product company Vemotion to provide rapid deployment, at a fraction of the cost of standard CCTV, according to the Thirsk-based firm.
Vemotion has now been deployed in problem public conveniences in remote local parklands and at housing association properties to add to the housing association’s own security.
Stewart McCone, pictured, is Managing Director of Vemotion. He said: “Wakefield is faced with the classic modern day safety and security challenges of a large, metropolitan area. With increasing scrutiny on the allocation of resources, managers need to be able to provide quick technology fixes that don’t mean major additional capex spend. The beauty of Vemotion is flexibility: it can be used to react to day to day operational problems, as well as included in an overall strategic CCTV deployment plan.”
In one hot spot for anti-social behaviour, it was proving impossible to control incidents or respond to all the complaints. Within three months of deploying Vemotion technology on-site, incidents had been eradicated, the firm reports.
Darren Pollington, Enforcement Operations Manager at Wakefield MDC, said: “The results with Vemotion speak for themselves. Vemotion helps us identify suspects at an affordable cost, and it simply reaches the parts of the borough that other CCTV solutions can’t.”
And as for benefits not initially recognised, Wakefield is looking to install some of the company’s products at busy road junctions for traffic management. The idea is not to issue tickets, but to integrate the transmission into the video management system, for traffic data to be sent and thereby offer motorists traffic news.
Darren added: “You can dial in on a hand-held and access from anywhere, if authorised. Vemotion’s collaborative approach is really innovative, and empowering to local authorities, that represents a great ‘old fashioned’ partnership, in absolutely the best sense of the word. Vemotion genuinely listens to customers’ needs and then responds with a solution. Vemotion’s combination of flexible, low cost, low bandwidth transmission technology, coupled with a great customer service ethic, means we are looking to further develop the partnership, where appropriate, in the future.”
Vemotion describes its products as ‘plug and play’, hence maximising existing equipment. The result the firm claims solves many ownership and hidden cost implications of maintenance and management that have plagued such systems in the past.
“Where fibre is not an option and you need to react fast, local authorities and law enforcement agencies are finding Vemotion a compelling proposition,” added Stewart McCrone.
Further information
Visit www.vemotion.com, or call 08444 906 906, or email [email protected].
