24/05/2011
Florida Public Safety Complex selects Genetec security platform
Sanford, Fl (USA)
The state-of-the-art, 75,000 square foot, Public Safety Complex houses both Fire and Police headquarters as well as the city’s emergency operations centre. John Grocke of Site Secure, a Genetec Unified Elite Integrator handling Sanford’s municipal security installs, knew Security Center had excelled in other critical facilities. When construction of the Complex was complete, he also recommended and oversaw the installation of 83 Axis Communications network security cameras.
Fourteen of those IP security cameras, including outdoor-ready Axis Q6032-E PTZ Dome and Axis P1343-E fixed network cameras, monitor the parking lot and building exterior, and the remaining 69 (mostly vandal-resistant AXIS P3343-V fixed dome network cameras) monitor the interior.
The network security cameras selected by Site Secure all have an H.264 compression option for efficient storage and have embedded intelligent capabilities that help maximize the City of Sanford’s effectiveness, such as video motion detection which can alert law enforcement to suspicious event and initiate higher-resolution recordings in the Omnicast system on movement.
The Synergis system manages 78 access-controlled points, primarily using HID PoE Edgereader ER40s and HID Edgeplus E400s, including parking gates, sally ports and evidence lockers. Other hardware was also integrated including HID Global biometric devices and PIN keypads for high security areas like the evidence room and armoury. The facility also utilises offsite monitoring, triggering alarms in the event of a door being forced open or propped open for too long.
Sanford’s system is supported by two IBM Blade servers and an 18 terabyte SAN. The server room is mirrored at City Hall with redundant connections as a failsafe. Monitoring is possible 24/7 from the onsite Security Center solution, with eyes on all federated systems in the event of emergency. “The installation itself went smoothly. Security Center easily incorporated the third-party hardware, and the Genetec support team was extremely helpful,” said John Grocke.
Security Center has provided the Complex with a high degree of flexibility in configuring permissions to accommodate a myriad of logistics and legislation details. Accreditation rules require that police and fire records and activities remain completely separate; the departments share common areas, but all other doors and video must be strictly segregated. Additionally, the investigation room has its own isolated workstation for viewing interrogation video, configured with a higher security clearance.
"We used physical keys for access control in our last building. The new system is far more efficient, yet despite the jump in technology, the platform is also quite user friendly, so there was no lengthy training process to get us up to speed. We’ve been very happy with it,” said Sergeant Dave Morgenstern.
“There are so many ways we can put this system to work, such as using our archives in an audit capacity to track evidence handling if a dispute arises in court,” said Nicholas McRay, Senior Project Manager at the City of Sanford. “Security Center has been surprisingly adept at contouring itself to fit our sophisticated needs.”