Bureaucratic Woes Can Affect Security

Usually when security cameras are mentioned in the news, it's because of what they recorded. However last month, several news reports centered around what they didn't record How could they? They weren't running, and haven't been for some time. Both situations point up the necessity of updating and maintaining IP camera surveillance systems.

Hoboken, NJ

One incident was, and continues to be tragic. On March 31, a young man went on a post midnight jog along the Hoboken waterfront. His fate has yet to be discovered. The police know his route through the business district because he was caught on several security cameras maintained by merchants and restaurants however once he approached the public riverside promenade, where at least two city-owned network

cameras are mounted,  the trail turns cold. The reason? Out of a municipal surveillance network of ten cameras, installed in 2004, none are working, nor have they been since 2010.

According to an NBC NY I-Team report, the cameras went offline four years ago when a contract the city had with the company responsible for system maintenance expired. Due to an irregularity in the bidding process it was never renewed. A spokesman for the mayor told reporters that an engineer was called in a couple of years ago and his advice was "this system is old and not maintained and the recommendation was that they really weren't usable."


Pittsburgh, PA

A similar situation exists in Pittsburgh, PA.  According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, nearly a quarter of the $1.4M worth of surveillance cameras bought in 2009 with a Department of Homeland Security Grant have

been taken offline because either they are not transmitting at all, or are providing fuzzy images. Why? Due to a bureaucratic snafu, the contract to renew maintenance went unsigned. When the contractor was never paid for work they had continued to do, work ceased.
However unlike Hoboken, 75% did continue to function, and fortunately so, since a combined surveillance video from public and private security cameras were instrumental in providing footage that led to the recent apprehension of a suspect in a double homicide.

The Foreseeable Future

In Pittsburgh, Mayor Bill Peduto's reaction, as reported by CBS Pittsburgh?  "It's a big concern. Anytime we spend a lot of money and buy equipment that's supposed to be used for the public, especially for public safety and  it's not being used or turned on, it raises a lot of questions."

At present the situation is on track to being remedied. Cameras  may soon be back on the job since the city council is expected to approve paying the contractor. How long that will take depends on the bureaucratic path the check must travel.

Meanwhile in Hoboken,  two weeks ago, the city received notification that it had been granted a FEMA Port Security Grant. The mayor's spokesman said the money will most likely go to purchase eight new cameras to monitor the waterfront.  Why most likely?  The city council must vote on whether to accept the grant!?!?

Let's hope when it comes time to replace what they have, both cities will select IP camera systems which

offer ease of maintenance and remote focus lenses and PTZ controls Also since IP camera security systems are network attached, they are highly scalable meaning cameras can be added or replaced without any effect on the whole system.



Kintronics can answer any questions you might have about security products. Call us at 914-944-3425 or fill out an information form and we'll get back to you with all the info you need.

DHS and a National License Plate Tracking System: Gearing up For A Monumental Database

It looks like the Department of Homeland  Security  is moving quickly toward adopting “recognition technology” throughout its various agencies. In our last post we discussed how its research arm, the DHS Science & Technology Directorate, was in the midst of a project to determine how and what type of Facial Recognition Technology could best serve U.S. airports and other high risk venues.  Well now we see that another DHS agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE),  is moving forward with implementing License Plate Technology (LPR).

Last month, ICE issued a request for bid for a national license plate tracking system. They are looking for a private company that will be able to compile and store a data base containing copious amounts of information culled from license plate readers used by police departments, parking violations bureaus, and car repossession companies nationwide.

A typical License Plate Recognition system consists of

• ·         A high speed digital camera such as an IP camera with a fast shutter speed to minimize blur.
• 
  
• ·         Infrared (IR) light, since it can illuminate the license plate day and night yet remain invisible to the eye.
• 
  
• ·         A computer to run the LPR software
• 
  
• ·         LPR software with algorithms that dictate a sequence of instantaneous processes starting with seeking out the license plate from all the other shapes of the vehicle, isolating the characters, and finally translating them into an alpha-numeric form the computer can recognize (Optical character recognition).

According to The Washington Post, the bid specified that

 “The government would prefer a close-up of the plate and a zoomed-out image of the vehicle”   which would go into a case file report that would include maps and registration information, as well as the car’s make and model.”

When the proposed database is in place, all an ICE agent  need do is snap a shot of a license plate with his smartphone to gain immediate 24/7 access to information which can link the plate to relevant lists and information concerning the car and its owner.  Since a database linked to a national license plate tracking system  could ostensibly contain upwards of one billion records,  it has raised privacy concerns.

 ICE emphasizes that the use of the database will reduce the time it takes to conduct  manned surveillance operations and will be strictly limited to cases under ongoing investigation or to searches for wanted individuals. DHS hopes that the way the system will function, with a commercial entity doing the actual data collection and storage rather than a law enforcement or government agency will further assuage privacy fears.

If you’d like to read more on the subject of License Plate Technology, head on over to Technology Notes Kintronics' monthly e-newsletter and check out

  License Plate Technology, a Twenty-First Century Way of Life 

and 

Speed Cameras, There’s More Than Meets the Eye.

If you're in the market for recognition technology or an IP camera, please call and talk to a Kintronics sales engineer who will be glad to answer all your questions. Call Kintronics at 914-944-3425 or fill out an information request form and we’ll get right back to you.

Facial Recognition Technology May Soon be Part of Your Travel Plans

Now that the 2014 Winter Olympic Games have passed into history, we can exhale in relief that they passed without any of the fears of terrorism coming to fruition. Some credit should be given to the Sochi

International Airport’s use of Facial Recognition Technology  (FRT) to screen the thousands of athletes, spectators, and employees entering secure areas.  Several other Russian airports employ the technology, and airports around the world are mulling over how they can use it as well.

Here in the U.S, the Department of Homeland Security Science & Technology Directorate, which oversees all R&D, tests, and evaluations is gearing up to make Facial Recognition screening a permanent part of our travel plans as well.

 The Directorate serves on two fronts. 

• On the one hand, they gather input from DHS agents, law enforcement  and other emergency responders on what can be done to best prepare them for the risks they face day in and day out.
• With this information in hand, they set out to find who in the private sector, research labs, or academic world has the technology to make it happen.

To this end, the Directorate has commissioned an initial FRT evaluation project with the intent of determining  how and which:

• ·         how FRT can be put into place, not only at airports. but at all levels of government, and
• ·         which software companies employ algorithms that can best aid first responders .  

Since the intent of the study is more to evaluate the technology than to pinpoint a setting or application, the first step they took was to gather neutral video footage, choosing to film attendees at minor league hockey games in Washington State. 

The hockey arena fits the bill, in that it offers crowds of people funneling through ticket collection areas or milling about at refreshment stands; a similar milieu to airports, cruise ships, transportation hubs, inaugurations, and other functions that could be targets.

Attendees were given the opportunity to opt out. Only a handful did. The next step was to pair the actual images with fictional profiles of the volunteer participants to be used to compile a database. This is all part of the how stage, and as of this writing, that's where they remain.

However, once they have the data standardized, and know exactly what test methods they will use, DHS will begin the which stage, sending out a call to selected manufacturers for the algorithms their FRT software products use.  The various algorithms will then be applied to the collected data to test the strengths and weaknesses of each of the FRT products. 

A major determining factor will be the percentage of successful matches made vs. false positive matches. After all, isn’t that what’s it all about?

For information on facial recognition technology or IP cameras, call Kintronics at 914-944-3425 or fill out an information request form and a sales engineer will contact you.