Background

Texas city in need of quality and reliability in surveillance system

Initially settled in the 1840s, the City of Coppell has grown to a mid-size Dallas suburb of over 40,000 residents. With dozens of parks, public facilities, and over 7 miles of trails to maintain and protect, the City of Coppell has a strong need for a robust and reliable video surveillance system.

For the third year in a row Coppell earned the top spot in the mid-sized city category of the ‘It’s Time Texas’ Community Challenge, a program that encourages Texas communities to compete over the ability to demonstrator the greatest commitment to healthy living. Nationally, the City of Coppell has ranked as one of the best places to live, one of the best places to be a kid, and shown a top 3 commitment to community safety through their participation in National Night Out. Coppell has also been ranked as one of the best places to find a job in Texas. Such accolades necessitate a posture of safety and security to continue to attract growth and continued community development. A manageable and effective video surveillance system is a key factor.

Challenges

Disparate and outdated solutions meant unreliable surveillance

The city’s surveillance systems consisted of a mixed bag of disparate systems scattered around the city. In addition to the complexities of managing and maintaining such a patchwork system, antiquated hardware added additional challenges. Many of the cameras used throughout the city and their corresponding systems where no longer supported, and in some cases, were no longer functioning. This non-functioning equipment meant the city didn’t always have the coverage they wanted or needed leaving gaps in their footage and data collection.

Solution

Seemless integration for reliable video surveillance

The city’s various VMS were all brought together under one view, so all systems and information is accessible from a single location. Numerous outdated and non-functioning cameras were replaced with the latest IDIS cameras, providing a reliable and relatively seamless integration with the VMS systems used, complemented with technologies including License Plate Recognition (LPR) to maximize situational awareness.

This deployment of next-generation technology, with IDIS cameras as the tip of the spear, as part of a newly robust video surveillance solution, increases the ability to mitigate risks, as well as see, understand, and react to incidents quicker and more comprehensively. Improved technology, and the full integration of IDIS cameras within the enhanced solution facilitates better, faster, clearer image capture and review. This increases not only law enforcement capability in Coppell, but creates both immediate benefit and increased potential for how the newer, more integrated system can be leveraged to support even more requirements. The new solution allows public safety and law enforcement to use IDIS footage and the full complement of integrated features and technologies available to them to better assemble a picture, gather evidence, and ultimately make the City of Coppell a safer place.

Results and Benefits

Latest generation surveillance technology delivering performance and potential

Before the system, they had several major crimes (armed robberies) committed in public areas but upon investigation, found that they had no camera footage. Since the new cameras and systems were brought online, they have had at least two incidents that were caught on video. The new system has also been used for a number of other investigative actions around the city. Albert Gauthier, Chief Information Officer of the City of Coppel, remarked that ”[the system] has already played a key role in multiple crime investigations.” During the opening of the city’s two largest parks, which were closed for renovations, the system was used extensively to ensure the safety and security of the 25,000 people in attendance.

" We are delighted with the new cameras and systems. We got what we expected and we hope to get a lot more out of the system as we finish this multi-phase project. Currently, we are only using a small fraction of the capabilities available to us, but see multiple avenues for improving the efficiency of investigations through automation. There is a bit of learning curve integrating all of these technologies, but we have already gotten value out of the system, even before its complete and fully operational. "

Albert Gauthier
Chief Information Officer, City of Coppell