The Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office (OCSO) has deployed Avigilon's high definition (HD) surveillance system at its 268,000 square-foot detention center, a move designed to save the agency more than $10 million annually in personnel costs and will reduce the incidents of false liability claims, according to Avigilon.

"One of the greatest advantages of the Avigilon HD surveillance system is that it delivers real, useable proof to help resolve conflicts between inmates or refute false claims of negligence or use of excessive force," said Capt. David Baisden. "With the Avigilon HD surveillance system in place, the first question we ask is whether we have video of an incident or not. With our previous analog-based surveillance system, checking footage was the third or fourth step in the investigative process."

Officers and administrators will manage the Avigilon HD surveillance system using Avigilon Control Center network video management software (NVMS) with HD stream management and have installed 138 Avigilon HD cameras ranging from one to five megapixels throughout the facility.

OCSO has also installed four analog video encoders to dramatically improve the performance of its existing 16 analog cameras and store up to 90 days of continuous surveillance video. A rotating staff of 20 officers monitors Avigilon's HD surveillance system around-the-clock from the central control room that houses 12 monitors and two workstations.

The Avigilon HD surveillance system delivers awareness in various prison areas without requiring a security guard for each cell pod. The OCSO can also cut investigation times from days to seconds.

With the Avigilon HD surveillance system in place, the OCSO can now provide clear, irrefutable evidence to the district attorney's office, which they were not able to do with its previous analog-based system. In addition, the OCSO can now respond more quickly to incidents to resolve conflicts and improve overall safety.

Finally, the OCSO can defend itself again false claims of officer negligence or use of excessive force to dramatically reduce associated liability costs.

"Under Sheriff John Whetsel's leadership, the Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office has a track-record of embracing technological innovation to continually improve police services and ensure the safety of its citizens," said Dave Tynan, vice president of global sales and marketing at Avigilon. "Sheriff Whetsel's success with the Avigilon HD Surveillance System is a great example of why law enforcement agencies around the world are transitioning to a new standard in surveillance that is easily achieved through the power and performance of HD video and abandoning the marginal effectiveness of legacy analog video."