EN- Industry Focuses

Security conversations with George Barlow Brown, IT Manager New Orleans Real-Time Crime Center The city of New Orleans knows how to let the good times roll and George Barlow Brown, IT Manager at the city's Real-Time Crime Center, part of the New Orleans Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, intends to keep it that way. The retired New Orleans police officer now oversees the deployment and maintenance of all technologies including security solutions. We recently caught up with this security expert who shared how a $40 million-dollar Citywide Public Safety Improvement Plan came to life and how city agencies and the broader community have benefitted. Brown also shares some interesting ideas that came up as they continue to grow their public-private partnership with local businesses. Q: Can you tell us about the New Orleans Real-Time Crime Center? How did this project come about? A: In late 2016, the Mayor of New Orleans decreed that the city would undergo a major security improvement initiative called the Citywide Public Safety Improvement Plan. This $40 million-dollar project included everything from bollards on Bourbon Street to the deployment of a new city-wide public safety system, and the construction of the Real-Time Crime Center (RTCC). The RTCC falls under the New Orleans Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (NOHSEP) agency. We employ civilians, not police officers, and our job is to support all public safety agencies including the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD), the New Orleans Fire Department (NOFD), New Orleans Emergency Medical Services (NOEMS), and the NOHSEP. We gather all relevant real-time and investigative information for these entities to help improve their teams' efficiency. Q: Which Genetec solutions do you currently use? How did you come to choose these solutions? A: We use the Genetec Security Center platform with the Omnicast™ video management system (VMS). We currently have over 350 connected camera feeds throughout the city. The video solution is integrated with a Briefcam analytics system, a computer-assisted dispatch (CAD) system, and a command center platform. We've also added 60 AutoVu™ automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) cameras and another 40 ALPR cameras from a different vendor in strategic areas in the city to help locate wanted vehicles and persons of interest. Going into this project, we knew that we would be replacing our old public safety system but we just hadn't chosen a new video provider. So, we decided to talk to the operators and managers in central command centers of other cities to see what technologies they were using.

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