Just The Facts 

Customer: The John Stewart Company, a commercial property management firm

Location: Ventura, California

Challenge: Improved video surveillance for an apartment complex.

Solution: Around-the-clock video surveillance and monitoring.

Results: Modern video surveillance system keeps crime at bay in a large apartment complex.

Customer Challenge

The John Stewart Company is a noted name in property management. In fact, the National Affordable Housing Management Association recognizes the firm as the largest manager of affordable housing in California and as one of the Top 10 in the nation. 

Since 1978, the company has offered high-quality property management for affordable housing in the Bay Area. Today, it provides a comprehensive range of services, including management, development, and consulting, and employs around 1,500 people. 

The company handles security upgrades, maintenance, and management for condos, apartments, and commercial properties, as it represents owners and provides on-site property management services.

Safe and Sound Security was called upon by The John Stewart Company to secure a sprawling apartment complex in Ventura, California. The company recognized the need for an enterprise-level security provider to secure these buildings, each housing nearly 100 tenants. 

“We needed to integrate video so that it encompassed the entire property and all the buildings on site,” says Shannon Beritzhoff, account manager with Safe and Sound Security. 

She explains the apartment complex was experiencing a range of security issues.

To begin with, the apartment buildings were organized in a way that created a central courtyard, with Dumpsters at the back for garbage disposal. Despite being designated for waste, residents were throwing recyclable items into the waste receptacles.

“Instead of properly recycling electronics waste or a mattress, the tenants were throwing it in the Dumpsters to save money,” Beritzhoff says. “As a result, the courtyard became an ugly, dirty area.”

The buildings were also near a freeway overpass and homeless community. Attracted by the stacks of “usable” trash, individuals from this community would search through the Dumpsters. Because of where the waste receptacles were located, Beritzhoff says they could search through them unnoticed. 

The apartments were also experiencing vandalism, especially with the elevators. People were vandalizing the elevators and impeding their normal operation.

Unwanted visitors were also a concern. Residents freely let friends in, and the property manager couldn’t control who was there or what they were doing. At one point, managers suspected drug dealing in one unit. 

“The police were aware of the issue and asked the company to pull video footage so they could prosecute the people involved,” she says. “But they didn’t have the footage, so neither the property manager nor the police could do anything.” 

Although the building had a video system comprising 26 cameras, it wasn’t being utilized to its full potential. The company also had property managers on-site. But frequent changes in staff have caused continuity gaps. 

“By the time new managers were trained and started using the cameras effectively, they left,” Beritzhoff explains. “Though they had cameras in place, managers were not there long enough to take advantage of what was installed.”

The property management firm desired a camera system that simplified footage retrieval and employee training. The John Stewart Company also wanted a security company that could handle camera management, troubleshooting, and remote video access and extraction. 

The new security system employed:

• 26 Verkada indoor mini-dome cameras
• 14 additional cameras (to be installed in the future)
• Verkada video analytics
• Ubiquiti NanoBeams

The project moved quickly. The John Stewart Company contacted Safe and Sound Security on May 7, signed a contract on June 28, and installed the cameras six weeks later. 

Camera Project: Phase One

Phase One replaced the existing 26 cameras with an eye on maintaining as much of the company’s current infrastructure as possible. Safe and Sound Security performed two site walks to inventory existing assets and assess potential reuse. 

Their analysis discovered the current camera setup connected cameras to a centralized DVR.

This meant that rather than investing in new cabling and conduit, Safe and Sound Security could replace existing cameras while reusing existing cabling and conduit. The site already had conduit runs and used Cat6 cabling, Beritzhoff explains.

“The cabling and conduit was compatible with the new cameras,’” Beritzhoff says. “Because we were able to use the existing cable and conduit, techs could take down the old cameras and install new ones, which cut down on labor. That was huge because while John Stewart is a large company, nobody has pockets filled with unlimited cash.” 

The study also considered the direction of the cameras and identified potential blind spots. This information helped develop a proposal that will ensure full camera coverage.

The second phase will install 14 cameras in identified blind spots. Despite fewer cameras, the cost will be comparable to Phase One because new cabling is needed, according to Beritzhoff.

The Benefits of Edge-Based Video Analytics

Verkada’s indoor mini-dome cameras were the perfect choice for providing enterprise-level security and advanced analytics at an affordable price, according to Beritzhoff

“These cameras are about half the cost of a more robust dome camera,” she says. “We made sure the cameras offered analytics features that made searching easier and enhanced how they used the system.” 

Now, if John Stewart employees have a problem with a tenant that has moved out, they can enroll their face into the system as a face of interest. An alert will be sent to management if the camera detects that person’s face.

“This lets them put people of interest into the system, as a sort of watch list, so they can be notified if they are on site again,” she says. “That way they find out immediately of a person’s return instead of after the fact, when they’ve done something wrong.” 

Property managers can also use the analytics to search for individuals based on their clothing color or carried items. For instance, they can instruct the system to search for someone wearing a black hoodie and jeans or someone carrying a blue diaper bag or backpack.

“The advantage is if a tenant says, ‘I saw a guy commit a crime’ and the only thing they remember is that they were carrying a black backpack or were wearing a red shirt, the property manager can search for footage of all people matching that description,” she says.

With video analytics, the system becomes active rather than passive. The old system at the apartment complex was passive, Beritzhoff explains. Simply put, a property manager could only search video footage for incidents that had already happened.

Managers are now alerted immediately as situations arise, she says. 

Keeping a security guard on site posed another challenge for The John Stewart Company’s security project. The security company did not supply the same guard every day, so they could enroll the individual into the security system to avoid alerts.

The situation corrected itself when cameras caught multiple security guards coming on site and staying in the office their entire shift. With active alerts, the need for on-site security personnel diminishes, she explains.

“Cameras are not lazy. Cameras do not go to sleep in an office during their shift. Cameras do not take smoke breaks. They are always on,” she says. 

Should a company choose to keep a security guard on site, that guard can now check alerts directly from his or her phone, she adds.

Troubleshooting the Tech

The complex had multiple buildings and multiple floors in each building, presenting a few challenges, according to Beritzhoff.

She explains every Verkada camera has to plug into the Internet somehow. Most apartment buildings have networks on every floor. She states it was necessary to identify where these connections were and then connect the cameras to those locations.

“You can’t just use Mrs. Smith’s residential Internet. We had to plug into The John Stewart Company’s Internet,” she says. “Our engineers had a tough time identifying where the network closets were and how many PoE switches were needed. We ended up placing a set of NanoBeams on one building to connect to cameras in a building that lacked a network connection.” 

Ubiquiti NanoBeams need line of sight to work, so technicians had to place the NanoBeams on the third floor so they could talk to each other, she adds.

Monitoring and Service

Safe and Sound Security’s project team closely monitors the operational system, promptly addressing all issues or alerts to ensure its optimal performance. This is achieved through a comprehensive service level agreement (SLA) that covers maintenance.

The SLA includes firmware updates for devices. Safe and Sound Security pushes out firmware updates to keep devices secure and constantly monitors video system operation. They set alerts on every device, so if a camera goes down, engineers know immediately 

The cloud-based system allows backend access to all devices for remote repairs. But if there is no remote solution, the company dispatches technicians to fix the problem, she adds.

To help users with system operation, Safe and Sound Security also provides unlimited help desk support available 24/7, 365 days a year, and unlimited end-user training. 

Focus on the Future

The John Stewart Company, a sizable corporation, is willing to invest per property to prioritize resident safety, according to Beritzhoff. She notes because of the success of this project, The John Stewart company has tapped Safe and Sound Security for another 5+ locations.

“From a sales and marketing perspective, this project was a real eye opener,” Beritzhoff says. “There’s an actual need out there and property managers will spend money to solve that need.”

If you’re looking for security system services or low voltage services, feel free to reach out to our local Safe and Sound Security office near Ventura, CA.

Safe and Sound Security
445 S Figueroa St suite 3100, Los Angeles, CA 90071
+1 213-513-5659
https://getsafeandsound.com/locations/los-angeles/
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