Wisenet Cameras Help King City Police Reduce Violence and Improve Safety

King City of California, United States, has a population of approximately 13,000, located along the Central Coast’s Salinas Valley. However, in recent years, King City’s homicide per capita rate for victims between 18 and 22 years of age was the highest in the state of California, as the city had become a point of contention in a turf war between rival Latino gangs.

To address this growing problem, the city formed a committee of community members charged with producing a plan to reduce youth violence. After working for six months, the committee came up with a strategic plan, and one of those points was to install video surveillance cameras throughout the city, which Police Chief Masterson, King City, California says became a primary focus for his department.

After careful consideration, Hanwha Techwin’s Wisenet cameras were selected as the optimum solution for this project. Systems integrator SurveillanceGrid strongly recommended Hanwha’s Wisenet cameras as they guarantee higher resolution alongside more frames per second, enhancing visibility through cleaner, clearer imagery both day and night.

As a result, 93 PNM-9081VQ cameras have been mainly deployed at intersections the police department determined to be a high priority for traffic flow and points of activity. The police department would be able to capture video of anyone coming into or going out of town. This was important because most of the shootings were perpetrated by people from outside the city.

The PNM-9081VQ is a 20megapixel multi-directional camera providing 360°view at once. This vandal-resistant camera with four 5megapixel sensors simultaneously monitors multiple angles to eliminate any blind spots. It also offers WiseStream II, Hanwha Techwin’s unique video compression technology with the triple codec H.265/H.264/MJPEG support which makes it able to provide ultimate storage management without sacrificing image quality. When combined with H.265 compression, the bandwidth efficiency can be improved by up to 75% compared to current H.264 technology. Bandwidth efficiency is important because the cameras send video wirelessly back to servers located in a command center within the King City Police.

Furthermore, the PNM-9081VQ delivers detailed monitoring even in humid or dusty environments through the camera’s IP66 dust/waterproof and IK10 shock-resistant standards. By means of such features, Wisenet cameras display remarkably detailed imagery regardless of local weather conditions.

Police Chief Robert Masterson said, “We’ve been working to change things, and the Wisenet cameras are working wonders,” adding, “Last year, we had 32 shootings and three homicides. But since the cameras were installed, we’ve only had one shooting since the start of the year”