Manchester City Council

Background

Although Greater Manchester Police has lead responsibility for tackling crime and disorder, Manchester City Council believe this must be underpinned by an active partnership involving the Council - in terms of enforcement and planning guidance - the community and, critically, individual businesses.

Key elements of a security strategy focused on this approach have been developed by a broad partnership embracing the Police, City Centre Management Company, the Council, and the private sector. This has led to the formation of Local Action Partnerships, responsible for delivering the crime and disorder strategy for the city centre.

With all parties recognizing that CCTV is now a crucial element in the ‘security mix’, the Council has played a pivotal role in the installation of a City wide CCTV network.

The Challenge

Manchester City Council’s CCTV network evolved from 1998 through to 2006 with discreet elements of activity resulting in several pockets of disparate activity across the City.

Recognising the strategic importance of the network to crime prevention and control, the Council realised a need for central co-ordination of the infrastructure, which prompting a review of connectivity options for the growing network.

Issues relating to cost and flexibility led the Council to review wireless connectivity, as an additional option, to fibre optic private circuits traditionally employed to service the needs of CCTV video streaming, and remote telemetry.

The ability to move CCTV cameras is becoming increasingly important as they are typically installed in response to specific local issues and problems. Once installed, it is not unusual to see problems resolved or displaced to another nearby location. Whereas a fibre private circuit understandably requires a long-term contractual commitment to a fixed location, a wireless CCTV network infrastructure affords easy and cost effective relocation of cameras in line with needs.

The Solution

Working in close partnership with Manchester Metronet, the Council has successfully installed a number of new cameras in various districts of the City. Wireless CCTV cameras installed in areas both inside and outside the City centre including Fallowfield, Withington and Didsbury, have led to securing convictions.

The physical installation comprises either a modern digital IP (Internet Protocol) enabled CCTV camera, or a traditional analogue camera that is connected to the network via a Codec unit, which converts the analogue signal into a digital IP compatible data stream. In either case, the quality of the image when transmitted wirelessly and the network latency (important when supporting remote telemetry) is on a par to a fibre private circuit.

It is now possible to move CCTV cameras within and between locations as required. Moreover, the lead time (less than 5 days) for installation, pales into insignificance when compared to fibre private circuits that often require road works, and therefore often take several months to deploy. This is important as it allows the Council to implement technology immediately following a decision in favour of a project.

The Benefits

The Council can now install a wireless CCTV camera anywhere within a jurisdiction demarcated by the M60 ring road that circles Manchester within days of making a decision for a project to go ahead. Moreover, the Council has the option of being able to cost effectively move CCTV cameras as necessary.

The high capacity of Manchester Metronet private circuits makes it impossible to discriminate between image quality of fibre supported installations and the wireless broadband network is proving to be extremely robust.