Glasgow Community and Safety Services (GCSS), an organisation set up by Glasgow City Council and Strathclyde Police, was keen to provide the superb city’s three million visitors and locals alike with a safe environment in which to socialise.
That being the case, it created the ‘Night Zone’, a partnership initiative that’s 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 entering the city centre on a Friday and Saturday evening, managers at GCSS worked together with their partners to enhance street lighting, increase CCTV coverage, provide a Help Point network and introduce transport marshals in a bid to answer questions from the public on how best to travel home.
Lessons learned from the past
Brian Maguire – the managing director at CCTV system installer Racam – explained: “When we were approached by GCSS to work on this project, we had in mind that we would use MIC Series cameras. Glasgow City Council installed some 20 MIC cameras in the parks about five years ago, and the managers there were impressed with the cameras’ robustness, design and image quality.”
Part of the appeal was the MIC cameras’ compact, attractive design which allows for discreet integration into urban environments. The ability to react to situations as they arise was also key, which is why the MIC Series 400 PA version (complete with twin PA speakers) was specified.
MIC Series cameras have also been fitted to 19 of GCSS’ vehicles to provide mobile surveillance, and were part of a solution trialled during the Scottish Cup Final last year in which SPL champions Rangers beat St Johnstone thanks to a superb strike from the legendary Spaniard Nacho Navo.
Mobility: the key to success
Walter Kean, head of facilities at GCSS, takes up the story. “In the first year the cameras were installed, we conducted a survey and discovered that there had been a 20% reduction in offences, particularly around taxi ranks,” he explained. “During the Scottish Cup Final at Hampden, we were able to deploy the vehicles to the coach drop-off points. To monitor fans’ behaviour that kind of versatility is invaluable when it comes to helping drive the reaction from the police or Council.”
All Bosch’s MIC Series 400 PTZ cameras are rated to the industry-leading IP68 benchmark for uncompromising performance in the most extreme surveillance environments, and can be mounted upright, inverted or canted for total installation flexibility.
Kean concluded: “Such is the success of the Glasgow ‘Night Zone’ scheme that 700 hundred crimes have been prevented, amounting to a saving of at least GB pound 500,000 a year. A number of other Councils across the country have visited to see the set-up for themselves, and are now using it as a template for their own CCTV solutions.”
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