There are a lot of types of street-type surveillance today and the fact that anyone can get these at the most affordable price is a testament to the kind of wonderful time we all live in now. Some of the various types of street-level surveillance gear that you can use these days include body-worn cameras, drones aerial vehicles, criminal defense resources and face recognition gear. Let’s discuss some of them in the article below.
ALPRs
One of the many street level surveillance that has been already engaged in the field today is Automated License Plate Readers or ALPRs. These are high-speed and computer-controlled camera systems that are installed in streetlights, lampposts and overpasses and even mobile trailers to assist the police in monitoring the cars driving the streets in too fast a speed. It’s hard to control the number of cars these days, and the amount of energy needed to make sure that the drivers behave accordingly could mean that the police would be having a hard time in monitoring them. These cameras are fantastic in that they can automatically scan the vehicle’s location, date and time, even the photographs of the cars where they made a wrong turn or traffic violation. These images and other data would then be submitted to a central server for the police to analyze.
There’s also a lot of people and experts saying that the ALPRs system can be escalated and installed in sensitive crowded areas that attract a lot of following. Places like union halls or protest areas could get a lot of help from these ALPRs because they’re the only arsenal that the police can get a 24/7 monitoring system in such crowded niches. Plus, there’s no way that drivers and other car owners can bypass or cheat the monitoring system since each car would need to display its license plates in public view, and later these cars would then be required to install a chip for easy scanning. Even centers of religious worship can get a lot of value from the programs in the ALPRs that are sold by companies like Mammoth Surveillance.
Body Worn Cameras
Another type of street surveillance these days comes in the form of body-worn cameras. These cameras have also been used by the police to ensure peace and order in the most number of places that need monitoring. Unlike the other forms, this one is a bit more physical and unscalable. You can only put one camera per police officer, and this fact alone makes the surveillance more close-up, intimate and precise. The law enforcement agencies need this type of monitoring device when dealing with hard-up cases and malicious people who might be drunk enough to talk decent. These cameras are also most ideal when documenting police misconduct and anyone who is suspected by the police to have done an infraction. The combination of this type of defense system with facial recognition would empower the police to create a more substantial defense for various security threats in administering justice in volatile neighborhoods.
Cellsite Simulators
These surveillance systems, also known as IMSI catchers, are ideal in the fact that they can deceive those malicious people who are using their cellphones for shady activities. The police controlling these IMSI Catchers, or Stingrays as most call it, can divert the suspects’ cellphones into their own and they could get the best form of grassroots monitoring device that delivers more fascinating results. The way this works is that cell-site simulators can get all the numbers or active phones that are within a certain radius. When this happens, the police can easily locate the most active and the last most probable link to the phone user they’re looking for. Equally important here is a discussion of the security issues that come with such measure. All of these strategies come with a price, and if you’re only doing it on your own, know that cell-site simulation is illegal and can just be done by registered and licensed law enforcement agencies. Some of the police agencies today that have employed these strategies in their security systems is Baltimore Police. It is using the system to make sure that they can prevent crimes from happening and they can track the kidnappers that are known to be situated in their area of responsibility. The Annapolis Police have also invested in about $56 M worth of cell site simulation just to make sure that no large-scale robbery could hinder the economy in their area.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Drones are also another way that companies and private individuals can tap the power of street style surveillance. Of course, there are different types of drones these days, which include live-feed video camera drones, thermal infrared and heat-sensor activated. There are also sophisticated surveillance systems that can help the police locate license plates and vehicles locations’ through the use of trackers. There are also now new plans and proposals to make use of drones as non-lethal and lethal weapons against malicious individuals.
Furthermore, drones vary in size, and they’re described as tiny quadrotors that fly off in street areas in the form of an aircraft. The advantage of these drones is that they can stay in the sky for a longer time than airplanes and the longer duration means that more monitoring can be done. There are also drones that are tethered to the ground with a very thin wire, so there’s no way that these drones can fly out in directions not indicated by its pilot. These wires could also act as chargers, so they don’t need to land to recharge the batteries that power them.
In addition, drones are quite fantastic these days because they’re less expensive and faster to deploy. You can also let them fly in the lowest altitudes or even indoors. The surveillance part in them comes in the camera attached to the drone, and this can record in photo and video several areas that could not be touched by regular surveillance systems. Another thing you should know, too, is that civil agencies now have seen the outstanding value of drones today in surveying lands for research. It can also be used to detect how much growth or damage has been done in a certain animal population. Plus, on a lighter note, drones can be used for fun parties as these can take an overhead video recording of parties or events in large-scale set-up.
Face Recognition Surveillance
This method of surveillance has now been even made more famous as smartphones use this regularly for security purposes. These systems can also be used to identify the legitimacy of certain images in real-time and non-real-time settings, verifying someone’s identity. The facial recognition is also a fantastic way to do trade or exchange digital currency. The legitimate face identity of a person can’t be faked, and so this makes for a better quality identity proof than others. That said, there are worries that these facial recognition systems can be hacked and can open oneself to more errors. These can also implicate people for crimes that they have not committed, and that is something that is also a big concern today. How does one make sure that the criminals can be caught and unwanted scenes can be prevented without harming the innocent? Additionally, the face recognition system has also been employed to cause malicious attacks on innocent individuals whose accounts have been hacked. Despite that, the United States sees a lot of value in this in making sure the peace and order of the country are sustained.
This Article is contributed by Eugene Klimaszewski, CEO of Mammoth Surveillance possesses more than a decade of professional experience in the security camera industry. He has partnered with multiple businesses, from small and medium enterprises to Fortune 500 companies.
