More than 30 Bosch cameras are protecting the public in Glasgow City Center following successful trials of the equipment in other parts of the city.
More than 30 Bosch cameras are protecting the public in Glasgow City Center following successful trials of the equipment in other parts of the city.
Glasgow Community and Safety Services (GCSS), an organization set up by Glasgow City Council and Strathclyde Police, was keen to provide the city's three million visitors and locals alike with a safe environment to socialize. So it created the Night Zone, a partnership initiative that is designed to help residents and visitors get home quickly and safely from a night out in the city.
With an average of 100,000 people coming into the city center on a Friday and Saturday evening, GCSS working together with its partners to enhance street lighting, increase surveillance coverage, provides a help point network and introduces transport marshals to answer questions from the public on how best to get home.
"When we were approached by GCSS for this project, we had in mind that we would use Bosch cameras. Glasgow City Council installed some 20 MIC cameras in the parks about five years ago and it was impressed with the camera's robustness, design and image quality," said Brian Maguire, MD at Racam, installer of the surveillance system.
Cameras have also been fitted to 19 of GCSS' vehicles to provide mobile surveillance and were part of a solution during the Scottish Cup Final last year. "In the first year the cameras were installed, we conducted a survey and discovered that there had been a 20 percent reduction in offences, particularly around taxi ranks," said Walter Kean, Head of Facilities at GCSS. "During the cup final we were able to deploy the vehicles to the coach drop off points, to monitor the fans' behavior."
"Such is the success of the Night Zone scheme that 700 hundred crimes have been prevented, amounting to a saving of at least US$777,000 a year. A number of other councils across the country have visited to see the setup for themselves and are now using it as a template for their own surveillance solutions," Kean said.