St. Louis deploys surveillance cameras
The St. Louis police department is installing wireless surveillance cameras to keep a watchful eye out for criminal activity, much as other big cities such as New York and Chicago have. But for now, St. Louis is using a smaller-scale network than the thousands of cameras other big cities have installed. St. Louis is using only eight cameras in a 10-block by 10-block area downtown.
The city plans to have the first two cameras up and running by the end of the month, said Richard M. Wilkes, director of public affairs at the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.
The cameras will be able to offer a 360-degree view, using Pelco software to monitor and record, with a maximum resolution of 724 by 494 pixels. The cameras can zoom in to show license plate numbers from as far as two blocks away.
The system will use a wireless mesh network from Firetide and will operate at a frequency of 5 GHz. IBM is assisting the city with the implementation and installation of the cameras and related equipment, Wilkes said.
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Trudy Walsh is a senior writer for GCN.