Police Buys FLIR at Costco, Industry's Worst Fear

I see this all the time.

So much for laying out a system design, collecting bids and reviewing proposals.

The Costco system is not being purchased instead of the $20 million system, it's being purchased in addition to.

As all the operational deficiencies that have been noted so far manifest themselves, this will only strengthen the integrators hand for the 'real' system.

As opposed to if they had never actually went to Costco, but only made snide off hand remarks about how they should have.

A friend of mine was experiencing chest pains. So he went to a cardiologist who checked out his health -- blood work, stress tests, various scans, etc. Of all the things that could possibly be wrong with him, she diagnosed a blocked coronary artery. Of all the ways to address a blocked coronary artery, she decided the best course of action for him was a stent.

The cost of the procedure, including the doctor putting the stent in the exact proper place and follow up to make sure it was working properly, would be $25,000. What a ripoff!

Instead, my friend bought a stent online for $25.00 and is having his nursing student son install it. In the case of trouble, they plan to call the stent company technical line for support.

An exaggeration? Perhaps.

My advice to integrators is to STOP SELLING CAMERAS. Instead, sell your expertise and experience regarding threat analysis, surveillance design/visualization services, installation/placement/optics expertise, network engineering, storage management, training, repair, and maintenance. And, also, integration with other systems the customer may have. And these services come bundled with the professional-grade cameras you carry.

Sure, maybe your customer can buy that Whizbang™ Model X camera for less elsewhere, but it was your expertise that was able to make that recommendation in the first place.

And, while not a factor in the newspaper article, don't carry cameras your customer can shop online!

This is just the beginning...once the IOT evolution/revolution unfolds sensors from A-Z will make everyone an expert in hanging something off a network.

At that point your value add had better be at the beginning of the food chain vs an RFP.

The sidebar to this story is the fact that this same jail currently has 3 of their own former correctional officers on trial for murder - they (allegedly) beat to death a mentally ill inmate in this facility.

So, the sheriff wanted cameras - and learned that not only would the cost be as described above - but that the process could take up to 2 years to complete.

The sheriff needed something now to show she was taking steps to make sure this kind of thing couldn't happen again. The civil lawsuits they will certainly face once the criminal trials are over will be significant - and not having cameras installed for 2 years could certainly be used by the litigants attorneys to show that the sheriff has done nothing to try and prevent future beatings/killings.

So, I don't think this situation is any kind of harbinger of what integrators will see in the foreseeable future - at least when it comes to federal/state/local govt facilities.

Several years ago, right before our state budget tanked "HARD" A new police chief asked me if we could improve safety operations in our coliseum with cameras. I was excited about the idea. I was aware of the force multiplying effects and how useful video can be in event management as well as criminal investigation. We had no cameras at all and I was told that whatever we did needed to be done below the price threshold that would trigger the long and more complicated procurement process.

I, knowing nothing at all about cameras, found and ordered an 8 camera analogue set with a DVR that came very much complete. The week it arrived the budget died. It was so bad that I was told that we had a great idea, but we can't even pay for our own facilities folks to install it.

I got to learn more about camera systems than I expected. Two of us, me and another police officer, did the installation. I actually got pretty good support from the company and we were successful atgetting things working. For me learning about using baluns and cat 5 to carry signal beyond the normal range of the coax was kind of cool. Repeatedly climbing a ladder to work in the drop ceiling and working on a catwalk 70+ feet off the floor were also not my favorite new things.

Once it was working it nearly paid for itself in the first month. Damage done, and denied, by an outside contractor was recorded. We were able to save the school around $1500. The facility staff was so impressed that they also invested in almost the same system. The difference in their purchase was that we saw that our lower end cameras were better suited for small rooms and were of limited benefit so they went with only four cameras, and chose better cameras.

Bottom line: Between the two Purchases we had just over $5,000 in putting up and recording 12 cameras in a facility that had previously had none. These two systems functioned fairly well for over 7 years with a few minor replacements. One replacement had a big impact. We replaced one of the cameras in the large seated area with a pretty capable PTZ. As you all surely know the difference in utility for that application was amazing. Our whole campus was growing into the regular use of video surveillance during this time (hundred's of thousands of dollars being invested) and we learned a good bit from this small, cheap,system. Primarily we learned that there are very real, demonstrable, benefits to having good video when trying to provide a safe environment. We also learned that we needed more and better equipment.

The coliseum is currently being renovated/rebuilt in a very major way. Capable, well specified, IP video surveillance is part of the design plan in order to provide for public safety event management and a physical security measure for the property.

So our box set was enormously better than nothing at all. But I suspect the jail purchase will also eventually lead to officials with the purse strings realizing the benefits of video along with the responsibility to do it in an effective way.

* Breaking News *

A fight at the prison was caught on their new system.

See the video here...

https://www.yahoo.com/news/video/newly-installed-cameras-show-massive-084836770.html

In addition to the $700 for the system, is the time for the labor to install. The video above shows that it took more than 1 person, a lift was required, etc.

Of course, they are running the cable without protecting them, etc. We will see what happens if an inmate pulls a length of cable down and uses it as a weapon...

I think a major factor in this is mentioned right off the top:

The Mercury News article highlights a common set of problems: delays, high costs, bureaucratic red tape - issues often associated with government projects. Integrators who bid on government projects are likely used to bid process paperwork, price sensitivity and long delays in getting projects approved and paid.

Besides the issues of trying to fit a "proper" system into the budget, there's the issue of the time frame it can take for something like this to get through all the channels (with no guarantee of it ever being approved).

So if a department of, say, a dozen cops, can kick in $100 each out of their own pockets to get a $1000 package (plus whatever necessary extras), and maybe have a couple of the more tech-savvy members come in on the weekend to slap it all in on their own time... it's a small price price for them to pay to cover their own asses, especially if there have been incidents in the past that left any of them with their integrity or professionalism being questioned.

Maybe six months down the road, the wheels turn and they get that big skookum system they were asking for... then maybe the old system gets donated to a school, or even just left in place as a "backup". Meanwhile, the guys working there have had six extra months of maybe a little extra peace of mind.

At the end of the day there isn't enough money, period.

Champagne dreams, beer budget.

Cities have a bigger achilles heal, PENSIONS.

If this cuts through the red tape and saves some money for potholes, pensions, etc., they're ahead of the game.

Technology has consistently over promised and under delivered.

Every few years they can rip and replace at a fraction of the high end solution.

5G wireless will change everything...hours of video streams transmitted in seconds.

This is more about management incompetence vs. lack of institutional controls vs budgets.....

Sheriff will be kicked to the curb...someone more politically skilled will replace her and down the road they'll put a real system in...

Same issue re: surveillance(or lack there of) in most corrections facilities...