IP cameras help police to cut crime by a quarter

West Midlands police needed to find a way to cut repeat and opportunistic crime such as burglary and vandalism without committing extra manpower. Police forces across the country have been tasked with implementing initiatives to tackle this type of crime.

A senior officer from West Midlands approached IT solutions expert, Globe Microsystems, with a request to develop a portable, covert surveillance solution which would be easy to install and required little or no end user technical knowledge.

Globe Microsystems outlined the cost of the project which enabled the force to request funding from the Home Office. Once this funding had been secured, Globe Microsystems was chosen to develop the solution, which became the Detectacam.

The Detectacam gives the police the ability to monitor remotely as an opportunist burglar enters a property, and make an appropriate response even as the offence is taking place. The units can be installed almost anywhere within minutes and relocated at the police's discretion. The Detectacam is a covert GSM video monitoring system which sends real time images back to a central monitoring station using Orange's high speed GSM data network.

Captured by Axis cameras
GSM was chosen because even if the phone lines to the building have been cut, the Detectacam will still continue to record images and provide alerts.

It provides a cable-free installation, making it quick and easy to deploy and re-deploy. The Detectacam is concealed within everyday household items such as fan heaters, Hi-Fi speakers, A4 lever arch files or waste paper bins. The images are captured by Axis 2100 network cameras which are also housed within this covert solution.

West Midlands superintendent Peter Goodman commented: "The cameras are so small they are almost invisible to the naked eye. Hopefully, by installing these cameras in the most vulnerable properties, we will be able to catch thieves 'in the act'. The most susceptible homes, and those most likely to be subject of repeat break-ins, are those which are exposed and have little evidence of home security."

The Detectacam can be placed in a residential or commercial property and is activated by a 'key fob' similar to that used to activate a car alarm. When triggered by movement the Detectacam transmits a predetermined number of digital images to a local police incident room via GSM. Proprietary software developed by Globe Microsystems links the alert data to a SQL database which recognises its origin. Once the origin of the alert has been identified, officers can view the images to verify whether it is a false alarm, before dispatching a response unit to the site.

The Detectacam provides police forces with the capability to record any images linked to an alert, onto two separate 'writeonce read-many' CDs. A force is free to use one recording for analysis purposes and maintain the integrity of the second recording so that it can be used to provide evidence as part of criminal proceedings. This enables the force to comply with the guidelines set out in the digital imaging procedure (March 2002), which has been developed by the Police Scientific Development Branch to ensure digital images can be used as evidence in criminal proceedings.

The Detectacam is the latest initiative from Operation Safe Homes, a force-wide operation set up to reduce burglary. Since its launch in October 2001, there has been a fall of 25 per cent in the number of burglaries.