British Police Perfect a Bird's-Eye View

Background
"Effective policing is largely about having the right information," says Mike Foster of the Humberside Police Authority. And Foster should know: He's the force's network supervisor. It's his job to make sure that his colleagues have the information they need to protect the 900,000 residents of Hull and the surrounding communities on England's eastern coast. Humberside Police must be doing something right: Humberside has reduced its crime rate for the last three consecutive years and the police force is considered one of the most successful in the United Kingdom.

Challenge
Like most government agencies, the Humberside Police Authority has been asked to achieve better results with limited resources. One of the ways they're doing that is to adapt new technologies to existing police strategies to deliver increased effectiveness. The deployment of the force's helicopter is a perfect example.

Today, having an eye in the sky is considered essential for policing urban areas. Humberside's helicopter was equipped with a camera and a video-transmission system that could send images to a mobile command center, but the command center had to be close to the helicopter. "This meant that the images could only be viewed on-screen by the mobile unit team," explains Foster, "while senior officers located elsewhere were having to base their decisions on verbal descriptions sent out over the radio."

The next step was the ability to send the images from the helicopter to a permanent control center, where senior officers could evaluate situations firsthand, make informed decisions, and advise their teams on how to proceed. This was accomplished via a microwave transmitter. The microwave solution was a marked improvement, but it still wasn't enough for Foster. Being able to broadcast the images from the helicopter to each of the force's 10 main police stations would allow for unprecedented information sharing and could dramatically improve policing.

"The cost of a dedicated network to send the video images to monitors elsewhere was prohibitive," Foster says, but the challenge sparked an idea: "What if we could use our Humberside Police intranet to deliver the images to other sites?" The right solution had to be cost-effective, secure, and scalable. The force was already running its private intranet based on IP WANs and LANs from Cisco Systems, so the logical step was to turn to Cisco for help.

Solution
In consultation with Cisco engineers, Foster and his team selected the Cisco IP/TV 3400 Series video broadcast server as a potential solution. Cisco lent Foster's team the necessary equipment and the services of a consulting engineer to determine if the system would meet Humberside's needs. The force's existing intranet already contained all the necessary switches, routers, and client machines needed to distribute the video, and the Cisco IP/TV® multicast delivery minimizes expensive bandwidth for video, broadcasting a single stream over the network regardless of audience size.

"Installation was very quick," says Foster. "You can plug in and run the Cisco IP/TV 3400 video broadcast server in an isolated environment fairly easily. In fact, one of the important benefits of the Cisco IP/TV system is that it's a turnkey solution. Quality of service and bandwidth are also crucial issues for video, but Cisco has already taken care of both these issues."

Given the nature of police work, security was a major consideration. Installing Cisco IP/TV host intrusion-detection software, which works transparently with the Cisco IP/TV content distribution manager, provided military-strength protection against network security threats.

Results
Once it was fully deployed, Cisco IP/TV content distribution manager was able to securely broadcast images from the helicopter to multiple sites. Authorized personnel could then access the helicopter's video feed from any Web browser via Humberside's secure intranet. When Humberside's senior officers saw the television-style quality of the video images and realized how easy it was to access the images, they were convinced that Cisco IP/TV technology was the right solution. They approved the investment in a Cisco IP/TV server, and the force is pleased with the solution. "It provides us with brilliant additional information," Foster says. "Decision makers can actually see what's happening on the ground."

Next Steps
Mike Foster and his colleagues are already discussing additional uses for their Cisco IP/TV multicasting solution. The force is currently considering purchasing additional Cisco IP/TV servers to monitor high-traffic areas such as downtown Hull, as well as Hull's new sports stadium. The scalability and interoperability of a Cisco network can make that possible.

The Cisco IP/TV solution can safely deliver a wide range of video and audio formats, including MPEG-2, MPEG-1, and even MPEG-4, the new ISO-standard format for high quality at lower bandwidths. Moreover, Cisco IP/TV technology uses industry standards for media streaming, offering compatibility with industry specifications that enable interoperability with a wide range of players and devices.

And when the Humberside Police Authority is ready to make these new investments, Cisco will be there. "We have a very good working relationship with Cisco," Foster continues. "We are impressed by how helpful they are. If we need assistance, they are very willing to provide it and the support is always there."

Further Reading

Snapshot
Humberside Police Authority

• Patrols an area of 1,356 square miles, centered on the Humber estuary
• Serves a community with a population of nearly 900,000 residents
• Employs 1,950 police officers and 860 support staff
• Has achieved reduction in crime rates for each of the last three years

Networking Solutions
Use these links to access technical information about the solutions discussed here:

• Cisco IP/TV Products
• Cisco IP/TV 3400 Series Video Servers

Related Links

• IP TV from Cisco Helps Police in Humberside, UK, Keep an Eye on Crime
• Buffalo Grove Video