Philadelphia Surveillance Camera Installation Project - Assignment Example

 Wilmington University CRJ 450 Grant Application Project Title: Philadelphia Surveillance Camera Installation Project Needs / Problem Statement: The Philadelphia Federal Executive Board has proposed that all residential home and property owners in Philadelphia install surveillance cameras in their buildings. The move has been necessitated by the rising security concerns in the city that hosts approximately 37 million tourists. The high population density makes the state a potential target for criminal activities such as terrorism and robbery. Considering the critical role played by tourists in the economy of Philadelphia, there has been a need to guarantee them maximum security because security threats are likely to scare away tourists and have negative effects on the state’s economy. The technology is likely to aid detection and prevention security threats through trough facilitated monitoring of both suspected criminals and targets. In addition, it will establish significance of technology and facilitate acculturation of technology reliance in the state and beyond. This exercise will bring together all property owners in the city and the Philadelphia Federal Executive Board in determining how the process will be carried out. The process will involve combining video surveillance cameras with NVRs and VMS recording gadgets as well as wireless networking that will provide a comprehensive security system for each building within the city. Project Narrative Security in a nation or even a state promotes the stability of that particular region, leading to increased development. On the other hand, insecurity leads to grave consequences that can lead to the destruction of a state. The city of Philadelphia, for example, attracts a large number of tourists, which make it a suitable target for terrorist attacks. The city also holds a large number of residents, thus increasing the possibility of criminal attacks. Tourists visiting the city promote the economy of the state, thus playing a key role in the success of the state. Consequent to this, the need to establish strong security measures cannot be ignored. These measures should assist the state in promoting safety, thus heightening the confidence that people have when visiting the city. Such confidence leads to more visitors, which translates to greater economic prowess. Therefore, the move to install surveillance cameras in the buildings of Philadelphia aims at ensuring maximum security for the state, against criminal attacks. The terrorist attack in New York City, which targeted the World Trade Center, highlights the importance of establishing security measures in Philadelphia. The terrorists attacked the city, leading to enormous destruction of people and property. Consequent to this attack, the state of New York suffered great loss. The economy of the city was destroyed, and many people lost their lives in the attack. 2,768 persons lost their lives, buildings that were 100-stories were destroyed, 17 acres of land got devastated and harmful clouds of dust spread over the area, leading to more damage. The Boston Marathon held in 2013 also accounts for the need to promote security in the city of Philadelphia. During this sporting activity, two bombs went off, and at least three people died. More to these, other people lost their limbs, and over 150 were rushed to hospital. This means that terrorists can strike at any time without giving a warning. Any state can be a target as long as it gets involved in significant activities. Therefore, installation of surveillance cameras plays a critical role as they can give substantial leads, thus protecting the city of Philadelphia from attacks. The problem of insecurity can be dealt with in a number of ways. One of these ways relates to the installation of surveillance cameras in residential and other property buildings. Such installations allow people to monitor the activities taking place in the respective locations. Given the cameras record the ongoing activities continuously, it becomes easy to detect peculiar actions. Detecting such actions on a timely basis allows for timely investigations of the prevailing situation, thus enabling authorities to identify criminal and terror attacks in time. Therefore, funding this program can help in mitigating the losses associated with attacks, thus promoting the stability of the city of Philadelphia. Successful implementation of surveillance cameras in residential and other property buildings in Philadelphia require the residents of the state to be informed about the intention of the Philadelphia Federal Executive Board. Consequent to these, the information shall be passed on to all the residents by use of announcements, through various media. The news shall be broadcast in the major television channels, as well as all the state’s newspapers. This shall help in informing the members of the city of the proposed action, thus alerting them of what they need to do. The federal executive board shall also provide the people with the required financial assistance, given its mandate to participate in solving challenges that threaten the peace and stability of the people of Philadelphia. The first step in fulfilling this project relates to raising awareness about the need for installation of the surveillance cameras. The televisions and newspapers shall be used to express this concern for a period of about a month. During this time, the media shall seek to inform the public on the need for taking precautionary measures to boost their security. Once the public is sensitized on the need for the surveillance cameras, the executive board shall grant the public the necessary funds required to install the cameras. The installation period is estimated to last for about two months, after which all residential and other property owners should have surveillance camera in place. Successful installation of these cameras is expected to promote security in the state of Philadelphia. Activities taking place in the city shall be monitored closely, and any peculiar activities investigated, thus minimizing the chances of attacks. Budget Summary: Budget Categories Total Cost A. Personnel 5,300,000 B. Fringes 28,000,000 C. Contractual 8,000,000 D. Travel 1,500,000 E. Supplies 11,000,000 F. Operating 18,000,000 G. Equipment 39,000,000 H. Other 1,200,000 TOTAL 112,000,000 Federal Funds TOTAL BUDGET $112,000,000 Detailed Budget Breakdown: A. Personnel Staff Title / Position Computation Funding Requested Project manager 1 * 2,000,000 2,000,000 IT specialists 2 * 1,200,000 2,400,000 Manual workers 9 * 100,000 900,000 TOTAL PERSONNEL - SALARIES 5,300,000 B. Fringe Benefits (each type/cost) Fringe Computation Federal Taxes Project manager 1 * 500,000 500,000 IT Specialist 2 * 200,000 400,000 Manual workers 9 * 30,000 270,000 Health insurance 12 * 2223833.33 26,830,000 TOTAL FRINGE BENEFITS 28,000,000 C. Contractual Services (consultants and contractors) List individually Provide Computations D. Travel (transportation and subsistence - itemize) E. Supplies (itemize) Supplies Computation Federal Food 10 batches * 500,000 5,000,000 Water 10012.5 liters * 400 4,005,000 Stationeries File folders (387,000) Writing pads (601,000) 1,995,000 Pens, markers, highlighters (1,007,000) TOTAL SUPPLIES 11,000,000 F. Operating Expenses (itemize) Operating Expenses Computation Federal Rent 1 * 4,000,000 4,000,000 Fixtures 10 * 100,000 1,000,000 Leasehold improvements 15 * 200,000 3,000,000 Marketing 30 seconds * 3 times * 1 day * 30 * 24 * 61.73 4,000,000 Payroll 24 * 50,000 1,200,000 Repair 1 * 24 * 200,000 4,800,000 TOTAL OPERATING EXPENSES 18,000,000 G. Equipment (itemize) Equipment Computation Federal Cameras 2000 * 4,400.01 8,800,020 Servers 500 * 30,000 15,000,000 DVR 1000 * 10,000 10,000,000 Controlled power unit 600 * 5000 3,000,000 Cables 2000 * 1099.99 2,199,980 TOTAL EQUIPMENT 39,000,000 H. Other Other Computation Federal Licenses 300 * 1200 36,000 Telephone and utilities 300 * 30 9,000 Bullet and water proof casing for cameras 1 * 2000 * 577.50 1,155,000 TOTAL OTHER 1,200,000 BUDGET NARRATIVE: A. Personnel Given the magnitude of the project, the preferred project manager will have to be highly qualified. There is a need to get an individual who has an outstanding experience with information technology projects. The proposed compensation will help motivate the manager to lead change and coordinate all the aspects of the project with commitment. The role of Information technology specialists is indispensable given the nature of this project. These specialists will provide much needed guidance on what will help to not only establish the stability of the project but its sustainability too. Manual workers will help deploy all the necessary equipment to their required locations. The cost of the personnel needed to undertake this project will be obtained from federal grant. B. Fringes Providing fringes to the team that will be executing this project will help make the work enjoyable and this should translate into better quality project deliverables. It is important to pay the team’s taxes in order to ensure that the project abides by the constitution. Health insurance is important to this project because it will help lower the cost of health care in case of illness hence saving the cost of the time that would be wasted by project management team members while seeking affordable care. The resources to cater for fringes should come from contributions by local community. C. Contractual / Professional Services IBM has an impeccable record of providing long lasting surveillance cameras and reliable IT consultancy services. IBM’s indispensable role in the establishment of the Chicago City Operation Virtual Shield is proof of it. Contracting IBM will ensure high quality surveillance system. Firetide is an established specialist in wireless mesh networking and IT consultancy services. Incorporating the wireless mesh networking in this project will help cut on the shortcomings of other remote and analog surveillance systems. Genetec is trustworthy in the provision of IP –based video recording and monitoring systems and this will enhance the project’s ability to trace the specific location of a criminal activity around Philadelphia. The sought federal grant will help cater for contractual/professional services. D. Travel Materials will need to be transport to the site where they will be connected and this will determine the pace of the project. It is important to ensure that the project management team receives orders timely in order to ensure that some aspects of the project are not delayed. Ensuring that the project’s personnel get to their work stations at the required time will help foster accountability. Resources contributed by the community should help cover travel expenses. E. Supplies Providing food to the project workers will help energize them to work so that they do not have to leave their stations to look for food elsewhere. Leaving work stations wastes time and can bring complacency that will impact the project negatively. The cited stationeries are needed for proper recording of the project activities. This will help make it easy for the audit team to do its work without wasting time used trying to put together important documents and inventories. This will ensure that the resources of the project are spent accountably so that implementation is not impended. F. Operating Rent will help cater for the cost of the space where all surveillance camera feeds will be collected and scrutinized for possible crime. This will enhance and coordinate response to criminal activities because the command will be given from a central location. Fixtures will be used to partition the available space in order to ensure that it is utilized to the fullest. Leasehold improvements will include maintenance for the premise where the surveillance feeds will be collected in order to make it more conducive for carrying out the activities of the project. Marketing is meant to publicize the state of security in Philadelphia and the need for the surveillance system in order to foster community acceptance and ownership. G. Equipment The proposed cameras are unique because they allow a 360 degrees view. Having as many as 2000 cameras installed in the city means that most areas of the city will be under surveillance hence criminals will recoil. The cited servers have the capacity to handle multiple sources and destinations of information and this will add onto the effectiveness of the project. DVRs of the proposed caliber have the capacity to show multiple locations and this will make it easy to monitor different parts of the city at ago. The destructive effect of abrupt power outages will be countered by the use of controlled power units so that surveillance is not interrupted. Cables will help in networking. The cost of project equipment should come from federal grant. H. Other Property owners need licenses from local authorities to operate surveillance camera systems lest they fall victims of privacy-intrusion charges. Court cases delay the progress of the project. Telephone and other utilities are crucial to the effective performance of the project management team. Bullet- and water-proof casing for surveillance cameras will prevent damage to the cameras hence saving on the costs that would be incurred in the event of such destructive risks. The community will contribute funds to take care of these other expenses. GOALS AND TASK ASSOCIATED WITH PROJECT It is targeted that by the end of twenty-four months, all buildings will be installed with surveillance cameras and this should guarantee security to 37 million tourists touring Philadelphia. The availability of resources and potential partners underscores the possibility to have implemented all the important aspects of the project in the given time and to have started reaping results. Implementation objective I The first implementation objective of the project is to take the first one and a half months launching an awareness campaign over the internet, local radio, television and newspaper with the aimed of informing the people Philadelphia about the urgency of reducing the rising crime rate in their area. A website will be created in two weeks after commencement of the implementation and will be used to show information about crime statistics and the prevalence of crime by specific locations of the city. In a month’s time, there will be a thirty seconds radio and television message running thrice a day, and a column in the newspaper featuring daily that will inform the people about the existence of the Residential Surveillance Cameras Installation Project, its importance and their input. Outcome of implementation objective I At least 90% of the population of Philadelphia will be informed of the efforts they need to contribute in reducing crime in their area and at least 20 million tourists will be guaranteed security. Implementation objective II To have developed and implemented a framework for establishing community partnerships in the first three months of project implementation; local businesses, residential premise owners, churches and educational institutions are some of the key community stakeholders that will be approached for partnership in terms of funding and technical support. Outcome of objective II Partnership will have been established with at least five businesses, forty residential premise owners, six churches, five educational institutions and up to 25 million tourists will be given enough security. Performance objective I To compose fifteen local community security committees in eleven months of implementation; these committees will take charge of training Philadelphia community members on the safe use and maintenance of surveillance cameras. Outcome of performance objective I Ninety-six percent of the population of the target place will be equipped with relevant knowledge on how best to handle and use surveillance cameras. Performance objective II To foster better police-civilian cooperation in seventeen months of implementation; to be indicated by the majority of crime reports generated by the civilian population of Philadelphia and not by investigations initiated by the City’s police department. Outcome of performance objective II At least 30 million tourists will be assured of security during their visit to Philadelphia. Impact objective I To foster improved community project ownership by the end of the twentieth month of the project lifespan; to be indicated by 80% of the resources needed to sustain the project coming from the Philadelphia local community. Outcome of impact objective I Thirty-five million of all the tourists who will visit Philadelphia will be given security. Impact objective II To finally establish a surveillance center in a central location of Philadelphia by the close of the twenty forth month of the project lifespan; this will ratify the sustainability of the Residential Surveillance Cameras Installation Project. Outcome of impact objective II Enough security will be guaranteed to 37 million Philadelphia tourists. Project Timeline/ Logic Model The problem According to statistics from the 2010 census, Philadelphia had 1,526,006 residents and this number is projected to have grown to 1,556,600 by 2013. Besides being the fifth most populous city in the United States, Philadelphia is a preferred destination to 37 million tourists who visit annually. High population and unemployment are some of the things that have been widely blamed for the high level of insecurity in Philadelphia. Statistics show that Philadelphia’s unemployment rate is 10.5 percent higher than that of the country. Poverty is the other important factor precipitating crime in the city with one in every four people below the federal level of poverty. Homicide and robberies are rampant in the city and if things are not done differently, many tourists may be scared away. The failure of the attempts that have been deployed thus far to curb the rising crime rate underscores the need for a more effective and sustainable anti-crime measure hence the proposal to install surveillance cameras in all residential premises in the area. Inputs Federal funds are one of the important inputs available for this project. Donations from residential premise owners are another input. The expertise and experience of IBM, Firetide and Genetec will be crucial to the deployment of this surveillance camera project. Partnership with local businesses will contribute to the sustainability of the project. Outputs The streets and areas surrounding residential premises will be safe. This is because law enforcement officers will have a better view of activities in the city and criminals will be deterred by the sight of cameras. Investigation and apprehension of criminals will be fastened. Surveillance camera footage will help law enforcement officers identify criminals and track them efficiently. Different types of crime will be reduced. Law enforcement officers will use surveillance footage to identify and interject crime before it happens. Outcomes Short Term More accurate policing of the city with police patrols aided by surveillance cameras. More arrests due to timely detection of crime. Improved safety for both the residents and tourists Medium term Sustenance of the high income that come from tourism because tourists will have confidence in the security of the city Reduced number of arrests because criminals will have known that they are being observed and will probably shift their criminal activities to other areas. Availability of resources for investment into providing better services to the residents of Philadelphia because the resources that have been going to prosecuting criminals will be saved through the reduction of crime. Long-term Increased number of tourists visiting Philadelphia due to the good security of the city and this will bring more revenue. Sustainability of the solution to crime because the resources that will be saved from the rampant crime of the city will be invested into the maintenance and sustenance of the project Improvement in the security status of Philadelphia so as to rank high in comparison to other places in the country. Evaluation Design The Residential Surveillance Cameras Installation Project evaluation will take the intermediate testing-and-posttest design. In this evaluation design, data will be collected at multiple points during the project implementation, preferably on a quarterly basis, and at the end of the implementation. The evaluation will help in determining the progress of the implementation, performance and impact of the project on the participants. The evaluation at the implementation stage will gather such facts and figures as the exact dates of the commencement of the project, the activities that will be prioritized and the number of people who will be conducting these activities. It will be crucial for this evaluation to capture the resources available at the time of commencement. The evaluation will seek to capture the number of people who will have received the content of the awareness campaign and the media through which they received the information. It shall assess how much crime will have been prevented thus far compared with the rate of crime in Philadelphia before the implementation of the project. Additionally, the evaluation will measure the number of partnerships that the implementation will have garnered thus far. In regards to the performance objectives, the evaluation will seek to determine the number of Philadelphia community members who will be attending training. The number of training sessions and their frequency will be documented. The evaluation shall seek to document how the activities of the project are filed. Philadelphia community members shall be assessed for how much they will have learnt on the use and maintenance of surveillance cameras. Crime reports will be scrutinized in order to capture how much will have originated from the general population and not from investigations initiated by the Philadelphia Police Department. In terms of impact, data will be collected on both the unintended and intended outcomes of the Residential Surveillance Cameras Installation Project. The short-term, mid-term and long-term outcomes will be captured during evaluation. Specifically, Philadelphia residential premise owners will be assessed for change in attitudes and beliefs about crime and crime prevention. There will be an evaluation team that will be charged with the collection of crime facts and figures. The team will be composed of five members who will have thorough knowledge of the technical aspects of the Residential Surveillance Cameras Installation Project. In the team, there will be an independent evaluation professional, a law enforcement representative from Philadelphia Police Department, two project implementers from NetCost Computers and one Philadelphia community member. Copies of crime incidences will be made from the records of Philadelphia Police Department and the evaluation team in conjunction will do selection with the officer heading the department. The records and inventories of the resources available for the project will be accessed and be copied from the project manager who will select them in conjunction with the evaluation team. Surveys will be used in collecting data on the impact of the project on participants. Registers will be prepared on the community members and residential premise owners attending training sessions and the number of partnerships established and the evaluation team will select these data. The data that will be collected at any point in the program will be related by comparing them with the ones collected in the preceding points. The collected data will be synthesized, and connections between them derived in terms of trends and patterns. Finally, charts and diagrams will be drawn to present the relationship between the collected data. Read More