To address all of the jail’s video surveillance needs, Ace Technologies Vice President Jammie Stalvey and his team installed more than 70 high-definition IP cameras from Pelco, including 69 Sarix Series dome cameras and two Spectra Series pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras. The Spectra cameras feature six times the resolution of standard definition domes so that important identifying features can be seen with great detail. This level of detail is critical to the security officers in the Colquitt County Jail, who now rely on this technology to maintain order while ensuring a safe work environment for guards and staff.

Additional Pelco solutions included two 12Tb Digital Sentry network video recorders embedded with Digital Sentry NVS video management software; a Digital Sentry Workstation; and six 32-inch Pelco video monitors. The entire solution works seamlessly together to offer officials the ability to view live and recorded video, store data for future use and provide forensic evidence to investigators in the event of an incident.

Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Rod Howell and the rest of the Colquitt County Jail staff have been impressed by the quality of the new surveillance network and they are uncovering blind spots they never realised they had before with their older CCTV network.

“The system Pelco has provided us with is so far ahead of what we had and it has successfully uncovered a lot of those blind spots for us – ones that we didn’t know we had,” said Howell. “Obviously, we’re still finding some more, but that’s just because of how good the camera system is now. The resolution and the quality are just phenomenal.”

It also didn’t take the jail very long to see a return on their investment once the new surveillance network was up and running. “Just two days after we put up the Pelco system, we caught somebody throwing contraband over the back fence,” added Howell. “The Digital Sentry video management system helped our guards spot some movement where it wasn’t supposed to be.”

More recently, Howell said surveillance footage from the system also played a key role in the apprehension of a nurse who allegedly attempted to bring contraband into the jail. “We were able to utilise video from our parking lot to discredit her story that someone planted it in her vehicle while she was at work. When you’ve got two different sides of a story, the video tells the truth,” added Howell.

Of course, the new and improved surveillance network has paid dividends inside the jail by helping guards more quickly identify problem inmates within the pods. So far, at least five people have been trained to use the Digital Sentry video management system, which according to Howell, was a breeze for guards to learn because of its user intuitiveness.

“It was much easier to use than anything we’ve had before, especially in going back and pulling up old video clips to copy for case files and things along those lines. It made a world of difference,” said Howell. “Everyone who sits in our control room – one person, three shifts a day – knows how to use it. It is very user-friendly.”

Howell said they have been so pleased with the new system that they have already set aside funding to install additional cameras that will cover other blind spots in and around the facility. “We love it and will continue to work with it,” concluded Howell.