Dive Brief:
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The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office in South Carolina is connecting traffic cameras to an AI-powered command platform to assist with evacuations during natural disasters.
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The cameras are able to record footage and have AI search functionality that can help emergency managers analyze evacuation patterns and adjust traffic routes during and after hurricanes, said Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office Captain Brian Baird.
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During evacuations, “instead of having a deputy at every intersection, now we can have cameras take their place,” Baird said.
Dive Insight:
South Carolina is one of the most vulnerable states for hurricane risk. Beaufort County experienced evacuations, power outages and flood closures as a result of Hurricane Matthew in 2016, Hurricane Irma in 2017, Hurricane Florence in 2018 and Hurricane Dorian in 2019.
A year ago, the county connected 50 of its existing traffic cameras to Verkada Command, a cloud-based security management platform that allows officers to manage multiple locations in real time and record activity during evacuations for post-storm analysis from a web browser or mobile app.
The platform’s AI-powered search and real-time analysis allow emergency teams to monitor traffic movement and congestion during an evacuation and review how people flowed through emergency exits and where delays or jams occurred, Baird said. It also frees up law enforcement officers to respond to emergencies instead of monitoring traffic.
“When you’re talking about evacuations and recoveries, tying up a deputy to stand at a corner and watch traffic is necessary if you don’t have another way to do it, but there’s better use for a deputy than just standing on a corner and not being able to leave,” Baird said. “The cameras are basically replacing the deputies in some of these locations. They’re augmenting our manpower.”
Baird recently implemented a real-time intel center where all the county’s traffic cameras and license plate readers can be monitored from a central location, allowing officers to respond to traffic backups and control traffic lights.
The system has yet to be tested, Baird said. “On one hand, I want to see it work,” he said, “and on the other hand, I don’t want to have a natural disaster come through here again.”
