National UK CCTV Strategy
Viseum’s “Intelligent Moving Camera” (IMC) technology is used to support key national UK CCTV strategies for open space surveillance. IMCs are not just another PTZ camera with the latest zoom or CCD, but are, moreover, a significant advance in how fixed contextual view and PTZ cameras can be used together to improve automated surveillance techniques.
Viseum’s PTZ Camera Array supports 2 key recommendations from
the UK Home Office National CCTV Strategy and
this report concludes by seeking technology such as Viseum IMCs
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2.2.4. FIT FOR SEVERAL PURPOSES
Paragraph 3
There is also a conflict between the pro-active and post incident investigation use of CCTV. Town centre operators use the cameras pro-actively to search for suspicious behaviour, certain types of activity, or in response to intelligence or ongoing incidents communicated to them by police or other parties. This real time pro-active use of the cameras is at the heart of the CCTV operator’s role. Unfortunately, this often frustrates investigators reviewing CCTV. If an incident was not captured initially, the roaming cameras, and distant shots are unable to provide secondary evidence/intelligence, by providing a good quality continuous recording at set locations or choke points in the vicinity of the crime. This results in investigating officers having to trawl nearby addresses and subsequently relying on external CCTV cameras from commercial premises. CCTV in this instance was never expected to provide the quality of images required for police investigations.
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2.3. CONCLUSION
Bullet 4
CCTV cameras are increasingly being used for potentially conflicting roles, which results in them becoming less effective for crime and disorder purposes. Until a viable technical solution is found, consideration should be given to supplementing existing pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras with fixed cameras capable of continually providing good quality images for post investigation use, and if and when they are justified, dedicated cameras installed for non crime detection use, thus allowing the original PTZ cameras to be used for their original pro-active surveillance use.
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R2.6 Summary; Establish technical requirements that will allow CCTV cameras to be used for multiple purposes.
The current installed camera base of Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) camera technology cannot be used by a variety of users for different purposes simultaneously. Therefore, there is a need to establish the technical requirements and possible technical advancements that would allow multiple purpose use whilst maintaining fitness for purpose but also reducing the cost.
How IMCs Support Recommendation R2.6:
Live events
- The fixed wide view cameras of the multiple camera unit provide the ability to automatically look for certain activity in selected areas, and provide the CCTV operator the ability to look for other activity in other areas.
- The operator could use either wide view or PTZ camera to look for event(s) reported to be taking place. Once the operator is following the event with the PTZ, they can also watch the wide view images to see what else they may be missing in the whole area.
Post events
- A bogus incident may be reported and although the PTZ may have been used at that time for something else (and therefore “appearing” to not capture evidence in the vicinity of this event), the fixed wide view cameras can still be used to provide contextual evidence, proving if the incident may or may not have occurred.
- Evidence from the fixed wide view cameras can be used to provide contextual information of an incident of what was happening in the whole area at the time of the event as well as before and after it, e.g. of how many witnesses there may have been or where the suspect(s) came from and left to.
- The auto-tracking PTZ software driver of the IMC system holds all the coordinates of where the PTZ has pointed and where activity has occurred. A “Smart Search” capability can be used to significantly reduce post video interrogation time to locate evidence only in specific areas where close up and or wide view contextual evidence is required.
Cost Reduction
- The automation of the IMC system can provide cost effective surveillance for certain environments and applications. E.g. certain environments can benefit from automated surveillance in standalone mode, reducing or eliminating staffing and communications costs.
- The fixed and PTZ cameras are deployed as a single unit which means that installation costs, cabling, power and networking infrastructure is minimised. Maintenance costs are reduced due to ease of access to a single site.
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R11.2 Summary; Create an effective funding stream for public space CCTV.
Bullet 3
• Income generation by the system itself; use of CCTV in a variety of ways from traffic, bus lane, and by law enforcement to alarm monitoring, lone worker monitoring and electronic patrolling of retail and business parks, where the system is ‘funding itself ’. The concern here is that cameras and/or the CCTV operators will be increasingly used for these purposes, detracting from the use of cameras for crime prevention and law enforcement. This last point is an increasing worry from a police perspective.
How IMCs Support Recommendation R11.2 Bullet 3:
- The IMC system’s automated discipline can support certain revenue generating activities. This can free up the operator in order to focus on crime prevention and law enforcement as originally intended e.g. with bus lane enforcement, the car can be immediately detected and the PTZ automatically moved to follow it without any distraction. Used in conjunction with ANPR this revenue generating activity can be optimised and completely automated.
- At any time the operator (or the IMC automation) can override the revenue generating activities to use the PTZ for crime prevention and law enforcement, or vice versa depending on the Authority’s policy.
- The IMC automation can be prioritised for crime prevention and law enforcement and focus on revenue generating activities as a secondary, or vice versa depending on the Authority’s policy.
