Verkada in the City of Arlington, WA
Information Certainty: Speculative
Deployment Purpose: Criminal investigations, Surveillance, Access Control
| Summary |
|---|
| 0 |
Products and Institutions:
| Product Deployed | Verkada Command (VMS) |
|---|---|
| Institutions ⠉ | Verkada |
| Datasets | Verkada (Dataset) |
| Search software |
Status and Events:
| Status | Ongoing |
|---|---|
| Events | |
| Start Date | |
| End Date |
Users:
| Involved Entities | |
|---|---|
| Managed by | City of Arlington Arlington WA Police Department |
| Used by | City of Arlington Arlington WA Police Department |
Location:
| City | Arlington (WA) |
|---|---|
| Country ⠉ | USA |
Description[ ]
The City of Arlington, WA has a full suite of Verkada products. It is not acknowledged whether the capabilities include facial recognition but Verkada has in the past disguised these practices. In the first instance the cameras are deployed at key access points. This project may expand to the whole city. In the video, the police and City say that they can also listen in to conversations over the system if necessary. The officers can also enable heat mapping.
“When Verkada integrated access control with their camera solution, that sealed the deal for us. We now manage all our physical security on one platform, and the ease of use allows us to share access more broadly with minimal to no training. Plus the cybersecurity, flexibility, and ease of installation are criteria that every IT director or manager should be looking at.” Bryan Terry, IT Director. With Verkada, Ventura and Terry have centralized physical security management onto one intuitive cloud-based platform. By integrating cameras with access control, they have improved visibility over door-based events to enable faster incident resolution. To simplify credential management, end-users have tiered permission levels based on user roles. Cameras and doors can be accessed securely and remotely through their mobile devices, eliminating the need for physical keys 1
Looking Ahead: Integrating Sensors and Citywide Deployment: “The city has other critical infrastructure which includes water and wastewater treatment plants, a city hall that houses employees, as well as maintenance and operations facilities containing expensive equipment and vehicles. Moving forward, we’re interested in the environmental sensors and continuing to deploy Verkada building-by-building throughout the city.” Bryan Terry, IT Director. Beyond the police department, Terry’s next project will be scaling cameras and access control to the utilities and administration office, public works plant, airport office, and permit center. He is also looking into deploying the SV11 to monitor for environmental changes within sensitive areas, such as server rooms housing IT equipment 1
Verkada is falsely and manipulatively alleging its facial recognition is "not facial recognition" and is "very different from facial recognition" as legal bans and ethical concerns rise against facial recognition. This became a public issue as Verkada attempted (and failed) to circumvent Oakland's facial recognition ban. Verkada corporate stood by their sales team's tactics in a statement to IPVM 2
References
- a b c "How a City Integrates Access Control and Cameras to Secure Key Areas". (2022) <https://www.verkada.com/customers/city-of-arlington/> Accessed: 2022-06-27
- a b "Verkada False And Manipulative Facial Recognition Strategy". (2021) <https://ipvm.com/reports/verkada-not-fr> Accessed: 2022-06-27