Inside Atlanta’s High-Profile Security Control Rooms
Posted on 2014-10-27·By Arlen Schweiger
A visit to the APD’s Video Integration Center (VIC) downtown showcased the massive surveillance effort of “Operation Shield,” which was launched in 2007 by the Atlanta Police Foundation and the APD, in partnership with the Atlanta Security Council, Central Atlanta Progress, Atlanta Downtown Improvement District, and Midtown Alliance. The VIC incorporates more than 2,700 cameras that incorporate private businesses’ cameras (including key spots such as the Aquarium and CNN Center downtown to smaller shops throughout the city) to cast a wider net over the city, all tied back to the command center.
Operation Shield also involves an emergency text alert platform as well as a two-way radio communications network. A huge video wall in a 4×4 flat-panel array (with the individual TVs set up showing six camera feeds at once) is front and center in the VIC, with dozens of other monitors set up throughout the room.