San Diego Hits New Security Heights

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM

San Diego's budget crisis has left the city's police department struggling to find ways to do more with fewer resources.

Through the help of private individuals and institutions trying to improve public services, the city has deployed Sony IPELA SNC-RZ30N cameras in a pilot project targeting the quality-of-life crimes plaguing the City Heights area for decades.

City Heights is a large community in the eastern part of San Diego known for its ethnic diversity. Along the main streets (which include University Avenue, El Cajon Boulevard and Fairmount Avenue) one can find Hispanic, East African, African American, Indian, Middle Eastern, and Southeast Asian businesses.

Geographically, City Heights is large and diffuse, with many sub-neighborhoods.

Before installing the surveillance system, enforcing these types of laws was a challenge because the investigations took so much time, City Heights officials say.

Instead, the IP-video technology gives the police the time to spend on other issues, while the cameras gather evidence.

“The cameras are like another tool on an officer's workbelt,” says Steven Rosenbloom, mid-city division prosecution officer with the San Diego Police Department. “They give us what we need to enforce laws that are otherwise difficult. The City Heights area has been a problem for generations, and nothing has proven to be very effective other than bringing a large number of officers to bear down consistently. Now we are able to create a virtual presence to achieve the same results through a more efficient deployment of personnel.”

Since the onset of San Diego's fiscal crisis two years ago, the number of vice squad detectives pursuing quality-of-life crimes, such as prostitution and street robberies, has dropped from 30 to 1. Along with the drop in manpower, Rosenbloom says that arrests have fallen to a small fraction of what they were.

With these quality-of-life crimes unchecked, local businesses and residents have suffered as the neighborhood declined, Rosenbloom adds.

Rosenbloom was given the task of eliminating the prostitution that had taken over whole blocks. He was assigned to work with the city attorney to craft a practical solution. To make a charge of “loitering with the intent to commit prostitution” stick, Rosenbloom says, police need to document the easily recognizable behavior for at least 20 minutes.

“Remote surveillance via IP-connected cameras is an ideal way to leverage our resources to do just that,” Rosenbloom says.

Rosenbloom says he knew an IP-based surveillance system could help him accomplish his assignment. The question was where to find the best technology and how to pay for it.

San Diego-based Dotworkz, an IP security integrator, laid out what was needed to cover El Cajon Boulevard and University Avenue, which had become rife with quality-of-life crimes, along with ways to start small and work towards building out the complete system.

“We were able to design a system that could start small, spark support and generate success along the way to drive it to completion,” says Will Ferris, Dotworkz's president.

Rosenbloom says the pilot project began last summer with $70,000 to deploy three cameras linked to a video server. “The pilot project showed the community what this could do, and so we're well on the way to bringing this forward with donated funding,” Rosenbloom says.

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