Look Both Ways

Jul 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Stephanie Silk

Even with thousands of raging fans and several roaring engines, there was still room for security at last April's 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Phoenix welcomed the event to its famous Phoenix International Raceway.

The Glendale, Ariz., Police Department was in charge of choosing video surveillance for the event. Mitch Kelsey, special operations supervisor for the Glendale PD, has experience in preparing such events for the city. “We always need to monitor crowds and look at incidents in genesis. It comes in handy for looking at patterns, such as how people are going in and out of a venue,” he says.

When Kelsey and his department surveyed the grounds during preparation, their goal was to provide tools to allow law enforcement to continue its mission of public safety. For this mission, the department looked to AgileMesh, Richardson, Texas, a previous provider for Phoenix events, to provide high-tech wireless video surveillance. AgileMesh's products are rapidly deployable. Joe Stefan, AgileMesh CEO, explains, “If surveillance is needed in a contained area for a short period time, and it isn't necessary to install fixed or wire video cameras, our product is the solution.”

The city chose a portable surveillance system that wirelessly transmitted broadcast-quality video to the Glendale PD mobile command center on the raceway grounds. There, the video streams were monitored in real-time to enable immediate response to incidents.

AgileMesh technology works around a Firetide wireless mesh radio. This partnership offers units fully supported by a heavy-duty tripod and that include a single- or dual-dome camera. The camera has full pan/tilt/zoom capability and a 23x optical-zoom lens. Two levels of encryption ensure that the signal is secure.

Kelsey says that the durability of the system is what impressed them the most. “After seeing a demonstration, we noticed the portability, ease of setup (it takes about 10 minutes to place) and durability,” he says. “Durability is important because in this heat, a camera could be on a metal roof at 115 degrees F, and it needs to be able to work all day.”

The Maricopa County Sheriff's deputies would be handling law enforcement for the event. Using stable, reliable surveillance, they played out common venue situations to prepare. These included public drunkenness, a drive-by shooting and even a fatal traffic accident that would close a major intersection.

When the NASCAR event came around, both durability and portability mattered. “The most difficult decision was deciding where to put the cameras,” Kelsey says, taking into consideration that they would not be able to monitor all 160 acres of grounds. “We needed to make sure to monitor any opportunity for an event to happen that was adverse to public safety,” he says. Ultimately, four cameras were placed in the main concourse and several more were used anywhere from inside the racetrack to survey the crowds, to the roof, where they could track activities such as crowd control.

Because of the wide range of options for placement, the security team could see everything without gaps or blind spots from their 83-ft. tractor-trailer mobile command center, where the real-time video was transmitted.

“A wireless system enables us to be proactive. The ability to deploy cameras rapidly, in the exact locations required, greatly improves our ability to respond to incidents effectively and prevent them from escalating,” Kelsey says of the success of the NASCAR event.

Next on Phoenix's to-do list? They just received word that “American Idol” tryouts are coming there this month, and it's the Glendale Police Department's job to make sure the Jobing.com Arena is fully equipped. “We're going to go above the security that already exists at the stadium — and plan to monitor those 12,000-19,000 people that will line up at 6 a.m.”

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© 2008 Penton Media Inc.

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