City of Parkersburg

Background

The City of Parkersburg, the third largest metropolitan area in West Virginia, has over 35,000 people in the city limits. Located at the confluence of the Ohio and Little Kanawha rivers, the thriving and growing river town strives to be the region’s premier choice for business, industry and community spirit.

 Challenges

“The reality is, times are changing. Now we have to be ready for anything and everything that could occur.” Tom Joyce, Mayor, City of Parkersburg 

Common to growing cities, crime has become an increasing problem. In a recent study of violent cities in West Virginia, Parkersburg ranked 5th. As a result of those staggering statistics, the city came together collectively and decided that they needed a scalable solution that would act as a resource for law enforcement in maintaining physical security throughout the city.

Why Verkada?

“What we came from before was a limited camera system, basically non-existent, to the Verkada system which is a very mobile, deployable asset for us to use.” Scott Elliott, Police Captain, City of Parkersburg

Verkada quickly became a valuable resource for law enforcement and the municipality of Parkersburg. From setup, to usability, the system architecture and supporting software made it possible for the city to be proactive about keeping physical security a priority.

Easy Installation and Deployment

“(Verkada cameras) are flexible and versatile. We can put them anywhere, quickly. Same day, no questions.” Garrett Bradlyn, IT Manager, City of Parkersburg

Verkada’s hybrid cloud solution doesn’t require the traditional DVR/NVR setup, making installation quick and easy. The cameras are designed to function off of lightweight deployments, and require only a single PoE cable to function.

Find and Share Footage Quickly

“The camera is at my fingertip whenever I need to go back days or weeks at a time to review surveillance in a certain area. It’s been a huge asset as an investigator.” Nathaniel Duley, Detective, City of Parkersburg

With Command, Verkada’s software platform, authorized users have ²⁴⁄₇ remote access to footage through their mobile or desktop devices, making surveillance — particularly in problem areas or during large events —  manageable and easy.

Perfect for Cities with Limited Resources

End-to-end, the solution requires minimal resources and infrastructural setup to function. Up to 10 cameras can function off of one cellular modem, and storing footage in the cloud reduces the cities need to increase storage capacity with every added cameras.

The Results

“We’ve jumped 10 years ahead from where we were just a year ago.” Joseph Martin, Police Chief, City of Parkersburg

Physical safety and security has become a city-wide initiative, and the Verkada surveillance solution has become a resource utilized by city law enforcement, local government and the IT department. With this added tool in their toolbox, the City of Parkersburg is able to get ahead of, and solve, real problems in their town.