On order of Klaipėda City Municipality, “Fima”, the company of intelligent engineering solutions, has completed the project that should increase the security of society namely, it has installed a modern city surveillance system. From now on, with the help of 57 CCTV cameras police officers will get the view of the busiest streets and places of the city.

“Klaipėda is one of the biggest cities in Lithuania visited by crowds of guests and tourists. We believe that this modern surveillance system will help the police officers to watch the most popular places of interest more efficiently as well as become an effective preventive measure”, says Mr.  Viačeslav Karmanov, Deputy Director of Administration of Klaipėda City Municipality.

According to Mr. Algirdas Grincevičius, Director of “Fima” in Klaipėda Region, the surveillance system installed in the seaport city is one of the most sophisticated systems in the country. “The network of video cameras is based on Internet Protocol (IP) technology which was also used in the installation of CCTV systems in the cities such as London or Stockholm”, says A. Grincevičius. He explains that this innovation is unique in its characteristics allowing speedy and simple transfer of cameras from one place to another; moreover, no complex technical solutions will be necessary to expand the network of surveillance cameras.

In May 2008 the first surveillance cameras were installed in the city of Klaipėda; the police started watching Theatre Square, Square of Lietuvininkai, Puodžių Street, Jonas’s Hill and the Castle Place. According to Mr. Kazimieras Sinkevičius, the Head of Prevention Division of Klaipėda County Police Headquarters, in more than six months surveillance cameras recorded 568 offences; there were 229 cases when drivers would park their cars in impermissible places, 143 cases of people drinking alcoholic beverages in public places, and 181 incidents of disorderly conducts and fights. “After one year we will be able to present initial data to compare it with statistics on offences during the period when there were no surveillance cameras. We hope the numbers will show the decreasing rate of offences”, told the police officer.

Representatives of municipality noted that as a result of a similar surveillance system installed in the city of Vilnius, the crime rate in the surveyed places has decreased by 40 percent per year.

Internet website www.saugusmiestas.lt that has been operating for more than two months is one of the components of the project on Klaipėda surveillance system. The website provides information about the network of surveillance cameras and places under surveillance; in addition, visitors of the site can propose in which areas of the city surveillance cameras should be installed. After having considered the presented suggestions, one surveillance camera was installed in the Minijos Street, near the entertainment club “Paradox”.

In October 2007 “Fima”, the company providing intelligent engineering solutions, won the competition for the installation of CCTV cameras in the city streets, as announced by Municipality of Klaipėda City; all installation works were completed in more than one year. Under the contract, “Fima” will provide maintenance of surveillance system for ten years, with no additional cost to the municipality.

Additional information about surveillance system:

More than a half of 57 surveillance cameras are controlled from the Surveillance Centre: cameras can be turned at the angle of 360 degrees, and the view can be zoomed in 35 times which allows distinguishing objects located at the distance of 150 metres. When it gets dark, cameras automatically turn on the night seeing mode. Cameras installed in the city of Klaipėda are resistant to humidity and impact; furthermore, if one camera or other piece of equipment is broken by vandals, the system automatically notifies the Surveillance Centre.

In the Surveillance Centre at Šermukšnių Street there are 15 monitors which simultaneously present the view transferred by all cameras installed in the city. View recording equipment is installed in special server panel which also has input control system, modern system of automatic fire extinguishing, breaking-in alarm system and sources of reserve power supply.