Alpharetta Considers Video Surveillance at Mansell

Alpharetta City Council will consider adding surveillance cameras in the Mansell Road/GA 400 interchange area to develop leads based upon license plates and vehicle descriptions.

Public Safety Director Gary George had one of his detectives investigate how the city could leverage technology to maintain the city's low crime rate and catch suspects. The recommendation was to implement the Iron Sky system, which is a map-driven platform integrating surveillance cameras and license plate readers with Public Safety's computer-aided dispatch and automated vehicle locater to identify and intercept vehicles associated with criminal activity, according to the agenda report for tonight's City Council meeting.

George said the system only captures the license plate number of a vehicle and will not capture any personal information regarding vehicle occupants.

Sandy Springs already uses Iron Sky, which has helped in the arrest of two burglary suspects that solved 100 burglaries in neighboring jurisdictions.

The system proposed for Alpharetta is designed to:

• Capture license plates coming and going from Mansell Road / 400 Northbound ramps and Mansell Road / Davis Drive intersections.
• Display live video and capture synchronized HD video archives
• Create the foundation for area growth using existing fiber and new wireless infrastructure.
• Record and archive all TMC camera images.

Detective W. Merrill's report said a study of business entering autos for the year to date showed that 72 percent of the business entering autos occurred in the areas of Mansell Road/North Point Drive and Mansell Road/Davis Drive.

The initial cost of hardware, software, installation and first year maintenance is estimated at $169,699, according to the report. Annual maintenance would be approximately $24,594.

Iron Sky installed the camera system that is operational at Atlantic Station, a North American Properties development. The agenda report said North American Properties has approached Iron Sky to recreate their Atlantic Station system at the new Avalon project here in Alpharetta, and intend to share this video with local law enforcement.

Alpharetta would be able to seamlessly integrate its technology with the GDOT as well as the cities of Sandy Springs and Dunwoody and other cities that come on line at a later date.

The Public Safety Department checked with traffic engineers in the Department of Engineering and Public Works. All the traffic management cameras, as well as the cameras Public Safety anticipates installing, will be able to function in a dual role.

And the system would help traffic engineers relay real-time traffic information regarding planned and/or emergency road closures or delays with maps on the city's website. Once Iron Sky finishes developing an app, It will have the ability to “push” the information out to personal communication devices.