Thames Valley Police has worked with local authorities to improve CCTV coverage, cut costs, and boost efficiency making public spaces safer and ensured long-term, reliable monitoring across the region.
Public space CCTV is vital in deterring and detecting crime across the Thames Valley. However, significant pressure on local authority budgets has made it increasingly difficult for councils to provide public space CCTV. There was real jeopardy that financial constraints would result in unmaintained systems, with limited or no real-time monitoring.
A fresh approach was needed, so the Thames Valley CCTV partnership between Genetec and Hanwha Vision was formed. The first major challenge was securing funding to overhaul several local authorities’ ageing systems, which were proving increasingly expensive to upgrade and maintain. The second was to manage the ongoing costs of staffing control rooms to ensure the long-term sustainability of monitored CCTV across the Thames Valley.
Following a tender, Thames Valley chose CDS Systems to implement its proposed solution. This would be built on Genetec Security Center and incorporate a range of multidirectional AI-enabled cameras from Hanwha Vision.
“We urgently needed to improve the quality of CCTV, enhance collaboration, and drive efficiencies for all partners. The respective capabilities and seamless integration between Genetec and Hanwha Vision technology was the optimal way of meeting Thames Valley’s requirements,” says Sam Thomas, CDS Systems.
Phase one of the deployment involved CDS taking over an existing control room in Milton Keynes, replacing the legacy analogue infrastructure with an IP backbone. It then installed Genetec Security Center to establish one platform through which officers could interact with all incoming video feeds. Legacy cameras were retained and reused to maximise the return on existing investment wherever possible. A second Genetec workstation was also set up inside Slough Police Station, allowing officers to rapidly review footage for improved community response.
CDS then introduced Hanwha Vision’s AI-enabled multidirectional 4k cameras to improve CCTV coverage and quality in public spaces. Each of these cameras incorporates up to five cameras in one device for wide-area surveillance, which would previously have required several separate devices. They also provide AI analytics, including accurate object detection and classification, to enable forensic search and save operators’ time when responding to incidents.
Phase two will see four additional control rooms in Oxfordshire merged into a single hub inside Abingdon Police station, also built on Genetec Security Center. This and the control room in Milton Keynes will be interlinked, adding further resilience as each site will be able to act as a fallback for the other.
