An Unblinking Eye

As he cruised the streets of Seal Beach during his graveyard shift, police Sgt. Dean Zanone came up with a novel way to discourage bank robberies that is so intriguing that he’s being inundated with calls from around the country.

The idea: Install real-time video equipment in banks that enable police departments to monitor live over the Internet robberies as they occur. When a security alarm is activated by bank employees, officers can keep track of events as the crime is being committed.

It sounds fanciful, but the system has been successfully tested at a Seal Beach credit union. And officials hope the system will eventually be installed in many banks and business across the city.

“When you realize that everybody on earth is putting video Web pages up . . . why can’t we do it?” Zanone asked. “I think people are sitting around going, ‘My God, why didn’t we do this earlier?’ It will change the way we respond for calls to service.”

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Police officers from the Los Alamitos Police Department joined Seal Beach officers recently to demonstrate how catching bank robbers in the future will become an easier task.

The images on a large pull-down screen in the conference room of the Seal Beach Police Department were coming live from Rockwell Federal Credit Union a couple of miles away.

With a computer monitor set in front of the screen, the options were “front entrance,” “lobby,” “ATM” and “tellers.” With a click of the mouse, the “tellers” option had been chosen and the two young women on the screen were seen conducting bank transactions. Periodically, one of the bank employees would turn around, smile and wave at the camera. The customers who were directly facing the camera had no idea they were being watched.

The images are transmitted via the Internet. But it’s a secure line, and only police officers have access to the images.

The system will enable police officers and dispatchers to see a robbery as it’s taking place instead of hours later after the videotape has been retrieved and rewound in the VCR.

During the demonstration, monitors inside patrol cars enabled officers to choose which of the four camera angles they wanted to review. Zooming in to people’s faces is also possible.

The credit union has been the guinea pig for the experiment for the past five months, after being robbed last September.

Zanone said the device can also be used at jewelry stores, beach parking lots and perhaps schools.

“Currently, when we’re responding to these robberies, we’re reacting,” Chief Mike McCrary of the Los Alamitos Police Department said. “Now, we’ll be proactive.”

Seal Beach Police Chief Mike Sellers agreed.

“We’re going to have a sense of what’s going on inside the bank before we get there,” he said. “If they get away, we’ll have an idea of what to look for. We see this as a means to reduce risk and exposure to our officers.”

Now, when a robbery is in progress, police policy is to surround the bank with guns drawn, but they have no way of knowing what’s going on inside.

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Zanone said his idea took shape after attending a presentation on closed-circuit television. Zanone asked the representatives of Loronix Information Systems to help him use their video equipment to create the detection device. They agreed and enlisted the help of UC Wireless and Litton Data Systems to assist in developing A Tip Video.

The companies donated time and materials, which helped pay for the pilot project along with state grants.

The system is being installed in the lobby of the Los Alamitos Police Department. The lobby closes at 5:30 p.m., but soon will remain open 24 hours.

If anyone is in trouble, they can come into the lobby. The motion-activated video camera will project an image to the dispatch center, where officials will talk to the victim and provide help.