Local Control, Central Management
LOS ANGELES, THE NATION’S SECOND LARGEST CITY, has more than 900 government buildings and facilities spread out over hundreds of square miles. These facilities range in size and function from city-sponsored day care centers to the historic City Hall to the Los Angeles Zoo. In 2001, Los Angeles (LA) maintained an uncoordinated, rather antiquated system of video surveillance and access control for its buildings and facilities. The Sept. 11 attacks set in motion plans to fundamentally change the city’s security strategy and practices.
A commitment to security
The extent of Los Angeles’ commitment to a new security program and organization — and the results to date — have been instructive and impressive.
“In 2001, we had little security,” says Dwayne Healy, former security administrator, who oversaw the project planning and implementation. “There was uncoordinated, localized recording, analog matrixes and black-and-white cameras that were not doing the job.” The city had minimal video coverage in the main Civic Center area and had no comprehensive, central surveillance coverage and monitoring. Access control was managed and monitored department by department and because there were sometimes several departments in one building, there could be multiple access control systems with little or no exchange of information.
Several city agencies maintained separate staff and security systems with little standardization or coordination. The Sept. 11 attacks highlighted the need to integrate the city’s security systems and response protocols and to bring them under one roof to enhance control and effectiveness. Los Angeles maintained a robust fiber network, and this infrastructure resource could serve as the starting point for a new city-wide security system that would eventually comprise an array of buildings and facilities spread out over a considerable area and posing security needs ranging from minimal to high security. In addition to integrating the new security systems, Los Angeles sought to integrate unconnected agencies and personnel to coordinate procedures and response more effectively.
Using a combination of Urban Area Security Initiative, Department of Homeland Security and city general funds, Los Angeles embarked on a security system overhaul and expansion designed to give each department the freedom to manage its own areas and security resources within established parameters, but also to allow for central oversight, intervention and control when necessary.
Video is central
Starting in 2002, city officials — with Dwayne Healy in the lead — began researching available technologies to assist in their ambitious security overhaul. Healy knew early on that the video management system would be crucial to the city’s overall and long-range plans, and the choice of video management system would set the tone and direction for the entire project. Healy eventually chose the intelligent Security Operations Center (iSOC) from DVTel, Ridgefield Park, N.J., to centrally manage what would eventually be more than 1,000 cameras, covering anywhere from 35 to as many as 50 of the city’s buildings and facilities.
The iSOC intelligent security platform includes a traditional DVR, matrix switch and multiplexer. The iSOC is based on a distributed architecture, so the city was able to leverage existing analog cameras and other hardware. TRC-EASI provided project design and consultation services, and RD Systems is the system’s integrator of record.
Centralizing security management
Chris Gustafson of RD Systems described the overall project goal: “Each city department would become a customer of the enterprise system,” he says. “The General Services Department (GSD) could provide overall control and backup, with each department maintaining primary control while still being part of a larger system. This way, in the event of a major situation, the GSD could lock down the entire city, comprising roughly 40 departments and 45,000 employees.”
All equipment and data runs through the city’s dedicated fiber backbone, thus allowing installation with short cable runs. In fact, a sensor device or camera can be located anywhere along the network, which facilitates the movement of devices and brings new locations onto the system quickly and easily.
In addition to the DVTel iSOC, Los Angeles standardized on the General Electric Diamond II Access Control System. Under the new system design, each department has a controller that monitors the shell (from the outside in) of the building. Once inside there is another controller that, while part of the GSD centralized system, enables local department control, with the GSD providing backup monitoring. After hours, GSD monitors and controls everything. Currently, there are up to 35 buildings on the system, and the Diamond II system continues to be rolled out to additional buildings.
Creating the office of public safety
After completion of the first two phases of installation, the city now has more than 400 cameras covering up to 15 buildings and facilities. Camera output is monitored and managed at the new Command and Control Center in the Office of Public Safety Building, formerly the GSD Security Headquarters. The Office of Public Safety was formed as part of the personnel reorganization completed in tandem with the security system upgrade and expansion.
The centralization of security operations, planning and response into a new Office of Public Safety (OPS) was more than two and a half years in the making. The security organization has gone from separate department staffs of 125 to a unified team of 400-plus. The OPS has oversight for all the various security forces and assumed responsibility for 72 public libraries, 400 parks and recreation centers, the zoo and the convention center. These new facilities are in addition to the municipal buildings and facilities in the Civic Center previously secured by GSD, including Historic City Hall, City Hall East, City Hall South, the personnel building, the communications center and several underground parking lots.
The new OPS provides centralized, coordinated and standardized response to events at more than 900 locations. The city’s goals are as simple as they are ambitious: unified training, unified protocols and uniform response.
Centralized command and control software
Upon project completion, it is more than 1,000 cameras and of sensor data — fire alarms, intrusion alarms, access control information and assistance boxes and intercoms — from hundreds of buildings and facilities will be monitored from the Central Command Center.
The Command Center is dominated by six digital light processing (DLP) rear projection screens that provide views of one to 16 cameras, interactive location maps and other data. Dispatch personnel also have their computer monitor output and various audio, alarms and other data at their fingertips.
In addition to the DVTel graphical user interface (GUI) control screens, the city is using Redstone Command and Control software to coordinate and manage the data flowing into the command center. With Redstone, when an alarm comes in, the dispatch officer pulls up the appropriate map, locates the flashing icon, clicks the appropriate displayed camera icon and is then able to evaluate the situation and take appropriate action. All other alarms, intercoms and assistance call boxes flow into the center for management through the Redstone software.
Select larger-scale facilities house remote monitoring and control stations that function during regular business hours. These locations will use the DVTel GUI for management. “This redundancy has significantly increased the effectiveness of our video operations,” Healy says.
Because the system is networked-based, anyone with the proper authentication can monitor from their local PC, thus eliminating the need for dedicated consoles and additional manpower.
Keeping it simple, flexible and scalable
Even with the large and growing number of cameras, the expansive coverage area and all that data, the city has managed to keep things simple and functional. “The officer’s computer prowess is virtually taken out of the equation,” Healy says. “We need both high-level future integration and a system our staff can use effectively right now.”
The server room, located next to the Command Center, offers three terabytes of storage, capable of providing 45 to 60 days of short-term storage for immediate recall. Long-term storage is also available via a networked Sun Microsystems digital tape library. “The goal is to push information or data anywhere it is needed, depending on the event and who needs the information,” Healy says. “This way we can achieve an automated and consistent response.”
The new system’s effectiveness and ease of use are best exemplified by the fact that the Command and Control Center is staffed by two dispatchers and one security staff member. The Center is in constant operation, providing redundant monitoring and management for remote stations during regular work hours, and switching over to assume primary response when security personnel are not present, and for all locations without local security.
The future looks bright
In the first few months of operation, the system, enabled security staff to capture a number of incidents. In one incident, the new system and its administrators were recognized by the City Council for the effectiveness of their vigilance and response.
“The city can more effectively deploy its security patrols because of the enhanced, integrated central and multiple remote site monitoring,” says Gary Newton, police chief for Department of General Services and Office of Public Safety, who sees the new system’s impact in a number of areas. “More empowered personnel and more efficient security patrols serve a two-fold purpose: The technology serves as a deterrent, because people who would commit crimes know they are being watched, and the response and effectiveness by OPS staff has improved measurably.
“The end goal is to provide safer city facilities through an integrated system in which everything is working off the same backbone and everything is compatible,” Newton adds. “This way, we can better monitor the safety and security of our many municipal facilities for our staff and visitors.”