Those “other” eyes and ears

You’ll quickly notice that this month we tend to visit the issue of security and surveillance a few times throughout the issue.

In Products & Tech, for example, you’ll find an IP video camera that specialized in low-light operation as well as a (pretty cool) new night vision product that can see through a wall without actually touching the wall. This thing is smaller than a smartphone.

In addition, our cover story introduces the men and women of the Hollister, California PD. If you’re into bikes you’ll know this is the place for motorcycle fan around the country. Every year the city hosts the Hollister Independence Motorcycle Rally, which first started in 1947 and hosts as many as 100,000 people in the city’s downtown (the regular population of Hollister is 38,000, by the way). Apparently this event was the inspiration for the 1953 film “The Wild One” with Marlon Brando. It’s a great fest, but no doubt a lot of legwork for Hollister’s force. They shared with us a couple of the more ‘high tech’ ways they got eyes and ears on the event, including location-based technology software and real-time collaboration apps—as well as making the right partnerships—to ensure the festivities were a roaring success.

I heard the same message when I attended the Midwest Security & Police Conference & Expo in Tinley Park, Illinois just a couple days ago. Security systems have evolved. In one session Rick Cox of Tri-Corp Wireless talked about the merits of audio and video surveillance. Do more cameras mean better surveillance? Not necessarily. One must also bear in mind their megapixels and specific analytic features (Cox called it the “horsepower in your camera”) like audio analytics that are designed for various sound types. Think ShotSpotter or audio analytics that listens for verbal aggression by way of tone and pitch.

If you’re looking to brush up on audio/video, meet with experts, or get hands-on a great opportunity is the Secured Cities conference coming up this November 16 in Houston. It’s the only public/private partnerships initiative in the public safety and emergency management sectors and you’ll come away with an invaluable peer-to-peer learning experience.

If you’re in the area, or looking to add to your knowledge stores, check it out. Nowadays there’s much, much more to security than CCTV. Learn how the nation’s cities are going wireless and at the same time are achieving more connectivity than ever before.