Pontiac approves purchase of new security camera system

One could say that there was an approval in the vein of George Orwell at Pontiac’s city council meeting on Monday.

The board approved the purchase of equipment and a program that will add security camera coverage of Humiston-Riverside Park.

Informational Technology Director Andrew Henderson explained that the new equipment would combine with the current system to allow for better camera coverage at Humiston-Riverside Park.

“Our desire is for the park to be a clean, accessible place for (residents),” Henderson said. “We intend to add and upgrade cameras at the park hopefully to identify vandalism in progress. At least to have the camera angles to give us evidence to prosecute people who are committing crimes at the park.”

He added that Humiston-Riverside Park is the main focus for the project, noting that there has been loitering and vandalism taking place after hours there.

“We want to take all of the cameras at that park and make them accessible to the police,” he said.

Henderson added that sensors monitor spaces, such as restrooms. It doesn’t record, but it collects information and notifies authorities of wrongdoing or mischief immediately.

An example Henderson provided was that the council chambers already has such sensors and he receives emails when people are there and when they leave.

He also said there is a need for a place to store this information for a long time. This means getting a central server.

The first quote came from Absolute Tech Solutions of Pontiac. It’s for updating the existing cameras at the splash pad area. It’s bid was $5,576.09.

The second was from Entre Solutions, which deals with the servers and the overall system. It’s bid was $66,450.89. Everything can be connected to it, he added. The main chunk of the cost is the big server and the licensing associated with it.

“We intend to use that server to add more stuff in the future,” Henderson said. “It’s not just for Humiston-Riverside Park. That server will be expandable ‘nearly infinitely.’ It gives us the feature set that we don’t have from the local recorders that we’re using right now.”

Alderman John Wille asked about areas that are blind at the moment, such as along the river. Henderson said a plan is to get the area along the river covered. The intention is to get a few angles of the Storybook Walk and one at the swinging bridge.

Henderson also pointed out that both companies have license plate detector cameras.

Another reason for the new system is the cameras already located throughout the city are online but nobody is checking on them 24/7 because there is no centralized place for them to go. The idea is to have them all go back to the central server.

The server would also support future access control. And, there is an AI component that will allow for immediate notification for loitering among other things.

Henderson presented two proposals and asked for both to be accepted. Total cost is $72,026.98.

This was approved by a 10-0 vote.

In other business, the council approved a second amendment to the professional services contract with Crawford, Murphy and Tilly, Inc., which is the consulting firm for the ongoing project the airport.

Also, updates were given on the Centennial Plaza and substation projects.