The city of Alleroed, in a suburb north of Copenhagen in Denmark, aims to stop vandalism and violence before crime is committed. A key tool for the municipality is XProtect IP video surveillance software from the Danish firm Milestone Systems. Mobile access means faster response and intervention.
The staff at a daycare centre had complained that a group was destroying things on the grounds after hours. The vandals had free rein because no one was in the area after dark. Alleroed decided last year to install CCTV in the institution in cooperation with Milestone certified partner Atea. The municipality now has more than 100 cameras in seven locations – most of them Sony SNC network cameras, which are controlled with Milestone XProtect Enterprise IP video management software (VMS) and accessed using the Milestone Mobile client.
Ulrik Bjelbæk, Deputy Emergency Response Director and Risk Coordinator in Alleroed, sits in front of his iPad. Two clicks later, live streaming images from an institution appear on his screen. With one tap on his iPad he turns on a floodlight on the daycare centre’s roof gable and lights up the areas where there had been problems, which can now be monitored day and night.
Another initiative to prevent vandalism and violence is the hiring of eight security guards who patrol in shifts. They access the video from their iPads using Milestone Mobile to see whether they have to drive out to prevent crime. In severe cases the guards will call the police.
“The new surveillance has been successful: there has been no vandalism since we got the new solution. Our security guards have kept a close watch and gone out there if they saw that trouble was brewing. But we still have some work ahead because our success depends on preventing all vandalism and violent crime in the area,” says Bjelbæk.
“Previously, it was up to the individual institution or school to invest in surveillance, and many chose not to do anything. At the institutions that had old video technology, the images often could not be used by the police because they were of too poor quality,” says Bjelbæk.
One of the places where the municipality still has old monitoring equipment is the sports centre, where money was recently stolen from the girls’ locker room. Here the security officer found images of the thief on the CCTV, but they could not identify the person because the quality of the pictures was too bad.
Ulrik Bjelbæk looks forward to seeing the new equipment installed in several places in the municipality – a solution that was chosen after a review of the market.
“We chose Milestone XProtect because it is so easy to access from mobile devices and the user interface is very simple, without too many buttons. Otherwise I would never get the guards to use it,” he says. “It is also a great advantage that the system is scalable, so if the need arises, we can add new cameras from one day to the next.”
Alleroed bought the cameras, software, and installation of the solution from Atea, who is a certified Milestone partner. They chose a solution in which the municipality pays a fixed monthly fee to Atea to use the system, with a service that guarantees timely technical support. It means that the municipality now has a better overview of the cost for repairs.
