City Surveillance System
Most municipalities have surveillance capabilities. Many-a-times, surveillance cameras are deployed throughout a municipality by various departments, like safety, sanitation, traffic and many others. While each camera was set up with a specific purpose, it may also provide information that may be of interest to other departments.
What generally occurs over time is that multiple independent surveillance systems are deployed but ultimately underutilized, as they work in isolation. This also leads to costs multiplying multi-fold for the same end purpose. For example, earlier the ATMs were allowed only for that bank’s customers. But today, the whole ATM network is used across by all participating banks’ customers. This is how the entire network can be multiplied ‘n’ times, with ‘n’ number of banks being part of the ATM sharing consortium.
Developing an infrastructure for a municipal surveillance system should be a collaborative process from a technology focused group, that works with all the stakeholders, to determine and work with the current and potential future requirements.
The whole purpose of developing a Municipal end-to-end surveillance system is to provide real-time, always-on video access to areas requiring enhanced public safety services. A surveillance node is only effective if it is available when it is needed, and because that moment of necessity is so unpredictable, it can be said that high availability is the most important feature of the Municipal surveillance system.
