Event Security and Emergency Preparedness: Oakland County Emergency Management Department

Detroit area law enforcement and emergency management officials contend with more than 1.5 million people and 30,000 classic cars at the annual Woodward Dream Cruise, the world's largest car show. With that many people in such a tight space, officials wanted improved situational awareness. They needed the capability for a visual "heads-up", in case any issues arose that might impact the public's safety.

Four weeks before the show, the Oakland County Emergency Management Department asked Vigilo to roll out a system that would provide real-time visual access to law enforcement, emergency response teams and hospitals. Despite a regional electrical blackout that coincided with the start of a multi-day event centered on the Saturday car show, Vigilo delivered an advanced visual monitoring system from the ground-up.

Vigilo streamed real-time video wirelessly from 6 different camera locations covering public areas along the parade route, which stretched for 6 miles along Woodward Ave starting at 8 Mile Road. The central command for this system was the Oakland County Emergency Management Center, with a mobile command center in the field.

Police officers walking the route and wondering what the commotion is up ahead were able to radio headquarters and have a live video image streamed to their Pocket PC handheld devices. Officials monitoring the feeds at a command center were able to see suspicious people or vehicles and instantly transmit pictures to the officers dispatched to the scene.
A split screen showed all six camera views at the same time, providing pinpoint directions on traffic or crowd problems as they began to emerge.

Although Vigilo's system used an array of high tech gear, from wireless cameras to video monitoring over PDAs—the most critical aspect of this type of visual security project is the knowledge of the integrator that glues all this technology together. Law enforcement officers, city officials, hospitals and emergency response teams had access to full motion, real-time video, including instant replay and archiving, made
available through a secure ultra broadband, hyper-speed wireless connection. The video content was streamed to handheld wireless devices for personnel on foot, through the Internet for remote monitoring and to the command Center at the Oakland County Emergency Management Department for centralized operation, displayed on a 60-foot long video wall.