Case Studies

If you have any doubts that video surveillance works, read about some of the real security case studies we have dealt with. Our digital video surveillance recording systems have helped local police catch many bad guys. We’ve even helped the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) apprehend individuals attempting to defraud the Motion Picture Academy. Always remember to post a very visible notice that all visitors to the premises are being recorded on video. If you do not post that notice, you will not be able to use that video as evidence in court, even though you caught the perpetrator red-handed.

Los Angeles is a star-studded town. Nearly every night there is some star-studded celebrity gala of one kind or another. The biggest bash of the year is undoubtedly the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences’ Academy Awards presentation ceremony. Watched worldwide by a billion people via satellite television, actually getting a ticket to see the Oscar presentations live is the hardest thing to do in Los Angeles. You have to be invited. And there are only so many seats. So people scramble to get invited to this event.

The Oscar tickets are so valuable that the Academy was looking for a better way to get these tickets to invited guests without putting the tickets in the mail, where they could easily be stolen. The Academy wanted to give the tickets to guest personally. So they set up a system to give tickets to invited guests but they had to show up personally at the Academy’s offices in the Samuel Goldwyn Building on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. Once the Academy started this system, they noticed some suspicious activity: people who we not invited guests were definitely trying to fraudulently obtain Oscar tickets, either through fake ID, or by theft or any other means. So the Academy called in the FBI to investigate and help them catch any perpetrators. The Academy took the advice of Beverly Hills Police department that this was a matter of fraud, and you call the FBI when you suspect an incidence of fraud.

So the Academy engaged us to install a multi-camera video surveillance system so they could keep a closer look on what was going on and we set up a system that would record everything that transpired, so the Academy could catch perpetrators red-handed.

And sure enough, the camera system we installed quickly caught a couple red-handed trying to fraudulently obtain tickets. FBI agents brought us the DVR hard drive, and we cut the relevant video from the relevant cameras and put it on a DVD for them. The FBI then used the video to charge the perpetrators with intent to defraud the motion picture Academy. Video surveillance works, if it doesn’t deter thieves, it’s still a great way to prove their guilt.

fter we installed a multi-camera video surveillance system at the Musicians Institute in Hollywood, we visited some of our client’s neighbors when we completed the installation.

One of the Institute’s neighbors is the Hollywood Ripley’s believe Or Not Museum. Since we had just installed a system on their neighbor’s presence, they were happy to talk to us. They asked for a quote and we got the assignment. We installed sixteen cameras throughout the museum.

Only a few weeks later, the following incident occurred at the museum. As the manager was cashing up in her office at the close of business, a man is sen on camera entering the frame, wearing a ski mask. He takes out a lrage automatic pistol, points it at the manager, and says to her, “Give me all the money”. Of course, she didn’t resist and handed over the day’s take to the gunman. Then the gunman saw the camera pointing straight at him. Knowing he had been recorded, he smashed the computer a few tines with his gun, thinking he would destroy it and nobody could later identify him. What he didn’t know was that we had installed a system with a backup DVR recorder in another location (Sometimes this can even be offsite). The gunman left without harming the manager, and they called the police.

The next day, officers of the LAPD brought the undamaged hard drive to our shop, where we looked at all the video from all the cameras, attempting to spot the perpetrator. Of course, he wasn’t wearing the ski-mask when he came in, so we had to use other identifying factors to scrutinize every person who paid admission to the museum that day. We recorded the video from the relevant cameras onto a DVD and gave ot to the police officers. I believe they used it to successfully apprehend the perpetrator.

Haifa Restaurant is a very busy and successful restaurant just a block outside the city limits of Beverly Hills. We eat there a lot, and got to know the owners. When it was time to install video cameras for added security, they gave us the assignment. It’s a small place, so we put up only four cameras. And two things happened right away. firstly, the standard of hygiene went up immediately. Before the cameras were installed, if a knife fell on the floor, the kitchen personnel might not wash it if they think no-one is looking. But after the cameras were put in, a knife falling on the floor goes straight into the sink to be washed.

And the second big change was obviously the increase in security.

On the very first weekend after we installed the cameras, Haifa restaurant was robbed. The video from the camera located above the back door clearly shows a white pickup truck backing up to the door, two people getting out, and cutting then lock of the door of a little trailer that was outside. Inside the trailer were all the sodas and all the cleaning materials – there was very little room for these inside the small restaurant. With their license plate almost filling the screen for seven minutes, the perpetrators took out all the sodas and cleaning materials, loaded it into their pickup, and drove off. When the owner woke up the next day to take a peek at what was going on at his restaurant, he saw the door of the outdoor trailer wide open and the trailer empty. He immediately called LAPD, who responded quickly. They didn’t need to bring us the hard drive to record video for the police. The police took one look at the huge license plate captured on the screen, traced the perpetrator’s address through the DMV, went to his place of residence, and found the perpetrator and the pickup truck identified in the video. It was a slam dunk. And the burglary happened on the very first weekend after we installed their cameras. Totally true story.