Established in 1948, the Milford (Connecticut) Redevelopment and Housing Partnership has recently deployed a total of 282 video surveillance cameras with Exacq VMS at nine developments to improve quality of life, increase safety, and streamline administration throughout their extensive housing projects. The majority of cameras installed at the state and federally-supported housing were IQinVision HD cameras. The partnership has a total of 465 housing units, a mix of mid-rise apartment buildings and single-family dwellings, spread over six federal projects and four state projects. Valley Communications is the integrator for this growing project.
Established in 1948, the Milford (Connecticut) Redevelopment and Housing Partnership has recently deployed a total of 282 video surveillance cameras with Exacq VMS at nine developments to improve quality of life, increase safety, and streamline administration throughout their extensive housing projects. The majority of cameras installed at the state and federally-supported housing were IQinVision HD cameras. The partnership has a total of 465 housing units, a mix of mid-rise apartment buildings and single-family dwellings, spread over six federal projects and four state projects. Valley Communications is the integrator for this growing project.
In 2007, the Speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives, who had grown up in public housing, initiated an effort to improve security at the state's subsidized housing developments. Anthony Vasiliou, Executive Director for Milford, offered to do a video surveillance pilot project for the state. With the success of the pilot project, Milford expanded the number of cameras (which will soon increase to 300) and the project's goals to include better housing lease enforcement and maintenance cost reduction.
IQeye cameras are deployed in building entrances, hallways and stairwells, laundry rooms, common areas, elevators, and to monitor parking lots and outdoor public spaces. “We can monitor all areas of interest, and we can follow someone from parking their car to the unit they are visiting or living in—this provides us with crucial information to monitor and enforce our lease agreements,” said Vasiliou. Talking about his experience with the IQeye 5 megapixel cameras for ALPR, Vasiliou noted the cameras great zoom capabilities.
The cameras are managed by Exacq VMS. The housing partnership has 58 terabytes of storage with a goal of at least 30 days retention. Vasiliou and staff can view video on a central monitor, on office smart boards, and on individual designated computers and mobile devices. “Our entire operation is centralized,” said Vasiliou. “We monitor everything from one location, so we don't need a high-priced manager on site at each development…We've achieved greater efficiencies and we've become a lower-cost provider of public housing.”
In addition to enforcing lease agreements, video surveillance helps administrators: to combat illegal dumping; monitor vagrants in corridors and prevent unauthorized use of community rooms. These have improved living conditions for the residents while at the same time increased the partnership's revenue, through rent and fees paid, and substantially cut maintenance costs. Tenant involvement has also increased. “Tenants have a real tendency to not want to be involved, but now that we have cameras, they are much more willing to report incidents because we don't need them as witnesses,” explained Vasiliou. The housing authority has also seen a major reduction in their legal fees as the cameras assist in gathering evidence, and enables the housing administrative to take care of incidents on their own, said Vasiliou.