Italian Police Department Reduces Park Crime by 80% With AI-Enabled Cameras
Gardone Val Trompia modernizes video surveillance in the city’s Mella Park with i-PRO multi-sensor security cameras.
Photo courtesy of i-PRO
TOKYO, Japan – The Gardone Val Trompia Police Department in Lombardy, Italy, has chosen i-PRO multi-sensor security cameras with advanced, AI-based analytics to help keep a popular community park safe for city residents and visitors.
Mella Park, a green space located in Gardone, a city of 11,200, is a meeting place for residents of Gardone and nearby communities. Like many public spaces, Mella Park saw its share of minor criminal activity.
Gardone Police Chief Commissioner Patrizio Tosoni sought to give police officers greater visibility across the park, and improve their response time to any incidents. However, the few surveillance cameras they had in place didn’t give them the data they needed to make meaningful improvements.
“The presence of only four outdated and nearly unusable cameras in the park translated into longer investigations and a less timely response to reports for us,” he says.
Working with long-time integration partner Suardi Srl, Tosoni and his department undertook a security modernization project.
“The multi-sensor devices we needed had to be extremely easy to install on relatively tall poles, offer the best resolution available, be robust, and easily integrate with systems already present in other neighboring municipalities also managed by Commander Tosoni,” says Suardi president Claudio Sasso.
“We also needed artificial intelligence (AI) to enable analysis of people and vehicles for fast and clear evidence gathering,” he says. “Given these requirements, i-PRO cameras were our immediate recommendation. They’re a company with which we have been collaborating for years with a high degree of satisfaction.”
In Mella Park Suardi deployed several i-PRO multi-sensor cameras including model WV-S8574L, with four lenses of 8MP (4K) each, and model WV-S8573L, with three lenses of 8MP (4K) each.
The cameras also include deep learning intelligence, providing the Gardone Val Trompia police with essential support for monitoring and investigative activities.
“Since updating the park’s video surveillance system in May, things have significantly improved,” says Tosoni. “Today, just a few months after implementing the i-PRO camera system, we have seen an 80% reduction in crimes within Mella Park. We’re only getting started.”
As the i-PRO S-Series cameras integrate seamlessly into the Milestone XProtect Professional+ video management system interface, the Gardone Val Trompia Police Department is able to centrally manage, monitor, analyze, and record real-time video streams from the installed devices. The cameras also enable post-event searching within seconds.
Improving Security With Advanced AI analytics
The i-PRO surveillance system in Mella Park includes applications that provide important feedback to police without infringing on citizens’ privacy. Most of the i-PRO cameras deployed in Mella Park utilize edge-based analytics running within the camera itself.
One such analytic is i-PRO AI Video Motion Detection which generates notifications during nighttime hours about the presence of people or vehicles in the areas under surveillance in the park. These notifications do not contain sensitive metadata but alert the operator to possible issues, ensuring a prompt response from law enforcement.
On other cameras at Mella Park, Tosoni and his team are making use of the cameras’ analytics such as vehicle counting for traffic analysis purposes or people counting for statistical purposes. Some cameras are also able to send generic vehicle attributes (type, color, direction) to the i-PRO Active Guard intelligent search application, to enable operators to perform forensic image searches.
Active Guard manages the camera AI metadata and seamlessly presents it within the department’s Milestone XProtect Professional+ video management system (VMS).
Delivering Results and Peace of Mind
To date, 40 public parks across Lombardy have been equipped with multi-sensor video surveillance systems from i-PRO by Suardi on behalf of municipal administrations.
More than 180 i-PRO monitoring devices have been installed within 18 months — 115 outdoor multi-sensor cameras with AI analytics, and approximately 70 high-resolution bullet cameras from the i-PRO S series, also equipped with AI technologies.
“We are very proud and satisfied with this investment in our locality,” says Tosoni. “The system we have installed in Mella Park is visible to all, and the public’s perception has been very positive.
“Intelligent video surveillance has established a tangible sense of security that is appreciated by residents and citizens,” he says.
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