municipal security

ATLANTA—This city is planning to integrate the public and private surveillance camera systems into one system to be monitored from an operations center.

HARRISON, N.J.—Relying on technology is increasingly important for the Harrison Police Department here, especially as tightening budgets mean fewer officers on the streets. The city is down to 40 sworn officers, said Sergeant Ed Markowski, but the southern part of the city is booming as the result of a major redevelopment effort.

DALLAS—No one can go it alone when it comes to fighting crime and theft, emphasized the police chief of Albuquerque, N.M.

BETHLEHEM, Pa.—Installing a citywide wireless video surveillance system is a project without an end date. The city of Bethlehem, Pa. rolled out 12 cameras in 2008 and next month will add seven more, bringing the total to 50

DALLAS—A new technology partnership aims to simplify and speed up 911 dispatch for central stations.

SEATTLE—Adopting wireless mesh technology has involved a series of trial deployments in different parts of the city by the Seattle Police Department, but will soon turn into a more permanent surveillance solution.

FREEPORT, Texas—It’s often easier the second time around. Having had experience deploying a video surveillance technology as the police chief of Bryan, Texas when Ty Morrow became the chief of police here in Freeport, he knew what questions and concerns to anticipate.

PLANO, Texas—Providing police with enhanced visual information was the main driving force for the city of Plano to improve its citywide video surveillance system. “Police can view cameras in real-time, from any device on our network,” said David Stephens, director of technology services for the city of Plano.

BERKELEY, W.Va.—Last week, Berkeley County finished installing nine more cameras on the perimeter of several of its historic city buildings as part of an ongoing project to upgrade video surveillance. The next big step will be to install cameras in its judicial center. Since June 2010 the municipality has been improving its surveillance program, said Gary Wine, director of information technology for Berkeley County Council.

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia—Taking a corporate approach to security was an important step for Halifax Regional Municipality in its effort to protect more than 250 municipal facilities. “We saw different business units going out and addressing their needs and finding their own solution and it’s not that it was done incorrectly, but there was just no common denominator,” said Randy Stoddar.