Anti-Crime Camera System Advances

The Buckhead CID board in October will vote on a proposal to place 14 video surveillance cameras in the CID area, according to a presentation given to the Buckhead Council of Neighborhoods Thursday night.

Bob Carter of Iron Sky, a company that integrates cameras and software into security systems, told the BCN that the company recently presented its plan to the Buckhead CID staff. The CID's board, not meeting this month, will consider the plan.

With his laptop computer and a big screen, Carter showed Iron Sky's software and camera systems in operation in College Park, Midtown and the West End Village. Video feeds from a Shell station in Midtown, the Decatur train station and a street in West End showed motion and small details with impressive clarity. Zone 2 prosecutor Hannah Chung said she was impressed by the sharp focus of the images, as compared with the video evidence she's been presenting in court.

The Buckhead CID and the Atlanta Police Foundation are partners in a program to bring more commercial surveillance cameras to Buckhead. The cameras would be tied in with the Atlanta Police Department’s video center downtown, where cameras throughout the city are monitored. The Midtown Blue organization is supporting the extensive camera network in Midtown, Carter said.

Before Carter’s demonstration, Garth Peters of the Buckhead Coalition told the group that the coalition is also participating in the program,  planning to fund placing of cameras outside of the CID’s boundaries.

Carter said that under the proposal presented to the Buckhead CID, wi-fi equipment for the system will be placed on “the tallest rooftops in the area.”

Responding to a question, Carter said the Buckhead Alliance’s longtime security cameras in the Buckhead Village possibly could be integrated into the new system.

However, he said he had looked at some of the equipment and “the cameras are very old in terms of technology.”

The technology is rapidly developing, Carter said. Peters said that the cameras can now details of a crime in progress, such as gunshots.