Page 25 - Campus Security & Life Safety, July/August 2019

"Transitioning to a powerful LPR platform requires a shift in thinking and imple- mentation, but the advantages greatly outweigh the challenges."
ness analyst and a police lieutenant (who sponsored the project) to find a better solution.
With a varied array of parking paradigms, including both zoned and timed parking, as well as the need to tie into gate control, BYU began to look into license plate recognition (LPR) systems that might aid in pulling solutions to all of these needs under one platform. They were also specifically interested in finding a solution that had a back- end for analyzing the license plate data that was collected, which would alleviate the need to develop a proprietary system from scratch for this purpose.
Goodman conducted thorough research on 26 manufacturers with license plate recognition solutions, and the project team even made several visits to college campuses in search of the latest technology. Eventually, the university management team decided on Genetec AutoVu, the license plate recognition system within the unified secu- rity platform, Security Center.
Solution
The software can be installed in two main license plate recognition applications. One option involves using AutoVu LPR cameras in a fixed installation, where the LPR cameras are mounted at entrances and gates to monitor passing vehicles, either to restrict access to a certain area or for vehicle tracking and auditing. The other option involves an LPR camera mounted on a patrol vehicle which scans the license plates of parked automobiles on both sides of the vehicle as it drives by. The solution then processes the information and alerts operators of infractions by triggering an alarm from a tablet inside the cab.
Rollout of the solution initially consisted of four cameras, split between these options. One fixed Sharp camera was placed on each of the two central gates to seamlessly control vehicle access without RFID cards, and one patrol vehicle was outfitted with a mobile Aut- oVu solution including two cameras positioned on either side of the vehicle. Later, additional fixed cameras were added to the perimeter of campus to scan license plates purely as a security measure, allow- ing the data to be mined after the fact, and allowing the AutoVu sys- tem to alarm on scofflaw, banned vehicles or vehicles tagged in the NCIC national database.
Finally, more fixed cameras were added to parking lot access points. All in all, the system now includes five gates controlled by the AutoVu system with five fixed Sharp cameras installed throughout the campus for investigation and hotlist monitoring purposes, and two patrol vehicles outfitted with the mobile solution. The two central gate controlling cameras limit vehicle access to the portion of campus with the highest amount of traffic in order help to alleviate congestion and make the area more pedestrian friendly; only service and faculty vehicles are allowed to enter this area. Another fixed camera controls access to a service vehicle parking lot.
The BYUPD manages a list of service vehicles permitted in this lot and enters them into the AutoVu exemption database as needed. Another fixed camera controls access to one of the visitor parking lots, which is also manned by an attendant. The final camera controls access to an enclosed parking structure to eliminate the need for patrol vehicles to monitor that lot.
By Chris Yigit
The university has three designated visitor lots, which are each manned by attendants who collectively handle more than 300,000 annual campus visitors. The parking enforcement vehicles sweep these lots to ensure no permitted vehicles have taken a space simply out of convenience. Other than the parking lot dedicated to service vehicles, the remaining lots are reserved for one permit type (student (Y), graduate (G) or faculty (A) parking), contain a mix of stalls for various permit types, or are designated for on-campus housing only. Some lots have service stalls, or O stalls for officials (such as deans and presidents), and most have handicapped and delivery stalls as well. Finally, a small percentage of BYU’s spaces are timed stalls, des- ignated for 15 or 30 minutes, and do not require the parked vehicle to be permitted or entered in the exemption database.
The AutoVu-mounted vehicles manage all of these variations in parking parameters and cycle through close to 60 parking lots sev- eral times a day. Officers select the type of zone they are patrolling at any given time, and the system scans surrounding plates and alerts the officers to any vehicle that is unauthorized or has exceeded its allowable time. In addition to monitoring lists of student and faculty permits, and service and visitor exemptions, AutoVu maintains a hot- list of vehicles that have been banned from the campus or are of inter- est to law enforcement.
“We have been able to expand our coverage to include areas that we previously might have only been able to check every few months,” Goodman said. “We are also much better organized in our enforce- ment now.”
Officers ticket vehicles that park in excess of their allotted time or in stalls for which they are not permitted. Tickets typically run between $20 and $30 and, “are meant more to maintain order than to pull in revenue for the school,” Goodman said.
BYU uses a ticketing system called CiteWrite, which was devel- oped by Cambio Labs, a nearby website and mobile app development firm. CiteWrite ties into the AutoVu database, pulling data like the name of the vehicle owner to speedily auto-fill ticket fields. The soft- ware can run with the AutoVu Patroller software in the patrol vehi- cles, as well as on BlackBerry and Android phones, allowing officers to quickly and easily issue tickets even if they are without a patrol vehicle. This is particularly helpful for BYU’s police officers, who do not currently use AutoVu-enabled cruisers. Citations can then be printed with any Bluetooth-enabled printer.
“The citations also automatically show up in the vehicle owner’s account online, and can be reviewed and paid as quickly as same-day, instead of requiring a visit to the parking office,” Goodman said. “The students really like this—they can get it taken care of and off their plate immediately instead of having to wait.”
Benefits
Since incorporating AutoVu, BYU’s permitting system has been greatly simplified. Instead of requiring students and faculty to physi- cally show up at the parking office and apply for a sticker each semes- ter, permitting can now be applied for online. Stickers are no longer required, as permitted vehicles are simply entered into the exemption database. In addition to streamlining the system, BYU no longer has to deal with replacement sticker requests. Moreover, the AutoVu sys-
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