In September of 2017, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico suffered extensive damage as the result of two major hurricanes. The first, Irma, passed just north of the island but still brought damaging tropical storm force winds and heavy rains that knocked out electricity to more than one million people and resulted in at least four fatalities. However, later that month, Puerto Rico would suffer a direct hit from Hurricane Maria that would result in catastrophic property damage and more than 3,000 lives lost. In the aftermath of the disaster, the government and people of Puerto Rico looked to rebuild not only what was lost in the storms but to also modernize and make substantial improvements to their infrastructure, including physical security equipment. The commonwealth’s school system, which operates more than 850 public schools, turned to its longtime security partner, Genesis Security Services, Inc., to build a centrally-managed video surveillance solution, as well as implement new intrusion detection and audio communication technology across its campuses.
Though the installation would represent a new contract between the department and Genesis, the two entities actually had a longstanding business relationship extending back over a decade as the family-owned company has provided contract guard services to schools throughout the commonwealth for nearly 15 years, according to Yasel Morales Garcia, Director of Technology for Genesis, who headed up the install along with Wilfredo Morales Rivera, the company’s project manager.
Genesis Security Services is also in the processing of expanding. The company, which has more than 20 years of experience in security and 10 years in the installation of security technology, is currently in the process of opening offices in the U.S. in Orlando and Miami. In addition to security, the company also provides electrical and renewable solar energy services to its clients.
A Complete Overhaul
Beginning in 2018, the Puerto Rico Department of Education solicited bids from vendors to implement a more robust and cost-effective video surveillance network. Having satisfied the requirements for an integrated solution, Genesis’ bid won and they got to work on the project later that year that would eventually see them install approximately 10,000 DH-Vision cameras from Uniview in
all of the island’s public schools over the span of six months. The project initially began in October 2018 and was briefly halted before resuming in February 2019.
“We won the project because of the features that the proposal had,” Morales Garcia explains. “Basically, it was a very strong and solid integrated solution that satisfied all the needs that the school system had when they released the RFP.”
The cameras were tied together using Milestone Systems’ XProtect Corporate video management software and are monitored from Genesis’ own central station located on the island, which also manages camera streams, and intrusion and fire alarms from other clients in the commonwealth. Morales Garcia says the biggest challenge for them in getting the new surveillance network up and running was coordinating all the resources at the scale necessary to deliver it on time.
“We had more than 100 people working exclusively to deploy this project. And they also had different vendors,” she says. “Some of them were working exclusively for us to be able to deliver all the necessary equipment for this project on time and proceed as scheduled.”
In addition to the cameras and VMS solution, Genesis was also tasked with installing about 1,300 IP speakers from Axis
Communications as well as 1,600 intrusion detection sensors from Optex, which are also integrated into the XProtect platform.
“They can see what's going on with every camera, but also what's going on with every device that is connected to the system,” Morales Garcia adds. “We can also see and access the cameras and other devices to be able to provide maintenance and fix any issues when they appear.”
All the video footage from the schools is recorded on-premises and is backed up in the Genesis monitoring center. The system also leverages intelligent analytics in the cloud that can alert security personnel when certain events, such as an afterhours intrusion, is detected.
Looking to the Future
Since the new security system officially went online in the summer of 2019, Morales says the school system has seen a 97% reduction in vandalism incidents. According to officials, schools have also seen a significant drop in intrusions and property theft, as well as a decrease in physical assaults and bullying among students. Additionally, local police are even leveraging the system to gather evidence on crimes committed in and around school properties.
“The cameras have helped not only to solve issues in the schools, but they have helped to provide information for other elements outside the schools,” Morales Garcia says. “This is a very innovative project, not only because of the technology installed but also because of the magnitude. This is the largest project of its kind on the island and in the Caribbean as whole with regards to the use of Milestone technology.”
For its part, the department of education plans to add more advanced capabilities, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, to the surveillance network in the future to address other security concerns.
“We’re considering integrating capabilities to be able to connect the system with the national sex offender registry to make sure that no sexual offenders are entering schools, crossing the perimeters or something like that,” she says. “They are also in an evaluation phase to implement a complement to the system related to active shooters to prevent those kinds of incidents in the schools of Puerto Rico as well.”
Joel Griffin is Editor-in-Chief of SecurityInfoWatch.com.
