Irisity Enables Proactive Crime Prevention and Smart Decision-Making

Vicente López, a “partido” (county) located in the north of Buenos Aires, has 300,000 residents living in some of the area’s most affluent suburbs, including the city of Olivos, site of Quinta de Olivos, the official residence of the President of Argentina. Although considered one of the safest cities in South America, street crime in the Greater Buenos Aires metro area is a problem, and the northern suburbs are a target for commercial theft.

In 2012, the local government decided to transform Vicente López into a Safe & Smart City with the goal of “proactive crime prevention” – preventing crime from taking place rather than simply responding to a complaint after a crime was committed. However, a major problem was the limited ability to effectively observe live video feeds and review recorded video.

Vicente López sought a surveillance solution that would allow the city to derive real value from the recorded video that was going unwatched. Within that solution, they required video analytics to help reduce crime and increase public safety through proactive measures by detecting traffic violations and road safety hazards, uncovering potential criminal activity and/or safety incidents, and automating post-event video investigation – providing law enforcement with quality images, as quickly as possible, to expedite resolving issues.

Certified Systems Integrator Exanet S.A., a member of Irisity’s Channel Partner Program, was contracted to provide a scalable, modern, and unified video surveillance and monitoring system. Initially, 700 new IP cameras were installed, replacing old analog models; the camera count has risen quickly to over 1,350 cameras, to meet the target of 1,500 full HD cameras recording 24/7 by 2020.

Irisity’s savVi video analytics solution was installed at the city’s Urban Monitoring Center (the CMU). savVi offers a set of advanced, automated video analysis tools enabling real-time event detection, video search, and business intelligence. savVi has been integrated directly into over 370 AXIS P1365 fixed cameras.

Integration with Milestone XProtect® Corporate video management system (VMS) enables alerts and real-time detection clips from savVi to appear within the Milestone XProtect® Smart Client. The deep integration of savVi’s forensic search tool into the Milestone software platform also allows video search results to be viewed directly from within the Smart Client, creating a seamless user experience.

In line with Vicente López’s stated goal of increasing public safety and proactively preventing crimes before they can occur, behaviors typical to the area were determined. These profiles were used to define and schedule savVi’s real-time detection rules that alert to scenarios including crowding and loitering in public areas (government buildings, educational institutions, etc.), speed analysis to detect traffic congestion, stopped vehicles at intersections and in restricted areas, vehicles driving the wrong way on one-way streets, abandoned objects in public buildings, perimeter breaches, and more.

Upon the detection of an event in real-time, the system can also automatically trigger audio messages transmitted through AXIS C3003-E horn speakers. These IP devices were installed in open areas as an extension of the project and contribute to the city’s ambition to become a Smart City by 2020.

In addition, savVi’s video search capability was enabled to begin collecting metadata to allow the investigation of criminal acts in the post-incident phase, with a view to dramatically reducing investigation time in time-sensitive situations.

savVi’s business intelligence (BI) capabilities such as people and vehicle counting are employed by Vicente López to provide insight through automated statistical analysis of traffic volumes, movement trends and motion patterns. Data related to people and vehicles are presented via advanced visualization tools such as charts, graphs and heat maps.

The city of Vicente López has, in recent years, positioned itself at the forefront of the global Smart City movement. The city is using technology – specifically video analytics of CCTV footage – to reduce urban crime through proactive measures.

savVi has enabled highly accurate monitoring of the city’s video feeds, effectively increasing the level of security offered, without increasing the number of operators. Implementation of video analytics has brought about significant, positive changes: savVi’s real-time alerts act to detect crimes as the incident unfolds and allow immediate responses, while savVi’s video search enables rapid post-event investigation, and BI statistical data enhances Smart City operations.

savVi was deployed at various sporting sites within the 2018 Summer Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires. For example, savVi was used to safeguard the BMX Freestyle and Skate competitions at the Buenos Aires Urban Park. A “technological fence” comprising savVi detection rules such as crossing a line, loitering, occupancy, suspicious object, and asset protection, was set up. These video analytics capabilities played a key role in protecting athletes, visitors, and VIP guests, helping to stop security breaches as they occurred and, by extension, stopping potential incidents before they escalated.

On a city-wide level, thanks to savVi’s real-time capabilities, the Vicente López security team has been able to manage vandalism on public buildings. In one such case, after receiving a complaint about graffiti appearing overnight at a government administration building, the security team configured savVi on cameras overlooking the site. The following night, savVi generated an alert about a person loitering on the sidewalk in front of the building. The nearest police patrol was dispatched, the person was spotted in the act of vandalizing and arrested.

The many car dealerships located within Vicente López means that savVi is also used to counter the high level of vehicle theft in the area. For example, savVi’s video search capabilities were used to locate a specific truck that had been stolen. Although the security team had no detailed information at the time the theft was reported, the comprehensive search parameters in savVi’s video search capability allowed the security operators to narrow down the search through the recorded video, resulting in relevant images being turned over to the investigation department. The vehicle was located, and several arrests were made.

In tandem with savVi’s use as a crime investigation tool, the video data is analyzed using savVi’s BI vehicle counting / people counting capabilities. The city plans to provide data about pedestrian movement and vehicular traffic as a free service to local businesses.

Implementing video analytics has produced proven results in terms of crime prevention and decision-making says Martin Gasulla, Undersecretary of Security at the Department of Security, Municipality of Vicente López: “Through the combination of different types of analytics, we have managed to streamline both our camera monitoring and our preventive actions. We’ve adapted our protocols to respond more accurately to the alerts issued by the video analytics system, allowing for immediate responses that, in turn, improve crime prevention.”

Sebastian Perez, General Director, Department of Security, Municipality of Vicente López adds, “Among the advantages of the live analytics: the proactivity of the system improved substantially in the savVi-enabled cameras. We have detected criminal acts and responded immediately, while other detections were useful in preventing possible future crimes.”

Hugo Menegozzi, CEO and Co-founder of Exanet said, “Exanet’s mission is to provide its clients with solutions that add value, which is why we’re very happy to be working with Irisity. We consider Irisity’s video analytics a key element in winning large-scale deployments such as the Vicente López project.”

“We are proud to be part of the Municipality of Vicente López’s physical security system. Thanks to their excellent cooperation and support, we are working together to deliver the highest possible level of security to the city,” said Miki Schwartzberg, VP Sales Americas at Irisity. “Irisity’s optimized integration with Axis and seamless integration with Milestone allows our solution to run all three applications on limited hardware with no restrictions on the number of rules and application types per camera. This, in turn, provides the customer with scalability and superior performance.”