BALTIMORE—Johns Hopkins Medicine on Jan. 19 signed a memorandum of understanding with the Baltimore Police Department to share information between their video surveillance systems. But this MoU isn’t a one-way deal.

While Hopkins wanted to provide police with access to its cameras, it also wanted improved surveillance capabilities in return, said Harry Koffenberger, vice president of corporate security for Johns Hopkins Medicine. “For the city, this represents a 25 percent increase in their video cameras, which gives them a 25 percent increase in their surveillance capabilities, so that’s certainly a win-win situation,” said Koffenberger. “We look at it from the standpoint that if it helps them, it helps us, and we’re a benefactor of that if at the same time we can share their cameras and look in when we have a need.”

Koffenberg, who is also a retired police commander with the city, said that this unique collaboration to jointly share video information is the result of a strong relationship between the two entities. He acknowledged that his experience as a former law enforcement officer helped him recognize the opportunity this situation presented. “Having experience in both worlds, it was readily apparent we could both gain from this,” he said.

But this isn’t the first major step for improving surveillance on and around the hospital’s urban campus. About a year ago, the hospital began deploying video analytic technology to improve its ability to monitor a growing number of cameras. The security department monitors approximately 1,000 cameras, 136 of which are exterior cameras equipped with video analytic technology by Cernium, said Koffenberger. And while the technology is user friendly, he said there has been a learning curve for everyone involved in the project.

“The software engineers were in constant contact with us and learning what we needed, so they can take the product to the next level,” he said. Similarly, there was a learning curve for the hospital to properly program the system so it would alert dispatchers of unusual incidents. For example, it was not important to set alerts at a bus stop during the day because there was so much activity, but it was important to set parameters to alert staff if there was activity at that same bus stop late at night. 

And while utilizing analytic technology has improved the department’s situational awareness and monitoring of the campus, “we primarily use it as a deterrent and for historic reporting,” he said. “If we catch something in the act, that’s icing on the cake, but remember it’s a computer that’s trying to think like a human and rationalize, so it’s not perfect, but no human can work 136 cameras.”