Keeping an Eye on Crime

Police can’t be everywhere at all times yet public safety is a high priority for most cities. So…how do you increase police presence without adding additional feet on the street?

Savannah Police Department faced exactly this challenge. In particular, they wanted the ability to better patrol the Riverfront area, especially during their annual Saint Patrick’s Day Festival – the second largest such celebration in the country. The event attracted a record one million people during the weekend event this year!

Beyond ensuring public safety for crowds during the Saint Patricks’ Day weekend, they wanted to have visual monitoring of 22 of Savannah’s historic squares – several of which are the highest crime zones within the City.

NetMethods as the system integrator, deployed a Tropos MetroMesh 5210-based mesh network; IP cameras were deployed with each Tropos router. This solution enabled police officers to view the surveillance videos from their laptops in their patrol cars as well as have access to key databases (criminal, DMV, etc.) back at the station. In addition, the police equipped their Mobile Command Center vehicle with a Tropos MetroMesh 4210 mobile router and IP cameras in the front and the rear, plus portable tripod cameras enabling them to drive anywhere in the city and maintain visibility for crime, traffic and crowd control.

“We chose the NetMethods and Tropos MetroMesh solution because their solution clearly provided the highest performance for our video and data applications,” said Brad Goodman, network manager for the City. “Plus, the Tropos-based network can easily be extended for additional public safety and city service applications, delivering more content to users in the field to be more efficient in their jobs everyday.”

“The St. Patrick's Festival is one of many events held in the Downtown Historic district throughout the year. It is clearly the largest event the City of Savannah hosts at any time. For those who've never been to the Festival or parade, it is difficult to imagine the number of pedestrians visiting for the event,” explained Captain Gerry Long of the Savannah Chatham Metropolitan Police Department SCMPD.

To further reduce crime and enable faster response to problems on a broader level, the city is expanding WiFi network coverage to other critical areas. “Public safety is the first of many applications for the City. Our goal is be to a completely connected City, with wireless connectivity available everywhere so that all of our mobile workers can do in the field what they can do at their desks. This will increase worker productivity and efficiencies and, as a result, public satisfaction within our community,” continued Goodman. Future applications include arming municipal workers and building inspectors with handheld mobile devices in the field to automate paper processing; automatic meter reading for water and other utilities; and city vehicle tracking.