The Background
The Bureau of Customs (BOC) is a Philippine Government Agency under the Department of Finance. Its main function is to assess and collect customs revenues from imported goods and other dues, fees, charges, and penalties. It is tasked with implementing border control to prevent smuggling and other customs fraud. It also supervises and controls the clearance of vessels and aircraft engaged in foreign commerce and it seeks to prevent the entry of contraband goods into the country.
The Challenge: Recording and Live Streaming Video to Control Center from All 17 BOC Offices of Philipplines
The Philippines BOC is in the process of modernizing and strengthening its enforcement and border protection capabilities, while at the same time further enhancing trade facilitation and improving the collection of the country’s lawful revenues.
As part of the modernization program, the Bureau wanted to upgrade the communication and incident recording solutions available to customs staff. It wanted to implement a body worn camera (BWC) system to provide daily recordings and real time viewing capabilities.
The BWC solution was needed to capture video evidence, so the footage could be used to review incidents. BOC also wanted to deploy BWCs at ports throughout the Philippine archipelago to enhance its monitoring activities.
The Solution
Hytera was chosen to provide the body worn camera solution for a number of reasons. For a start, Hytera offers a complete solution from the BWC terminal itself to docking and charging stations and a full end-to-end digital evidence management (DEM) system. Another attraction is that the high-tier Hytera VM780 BWC offers many features which go well beyond the list of requirements set out by BOC.
The Benefits
Real Time Command and Dispatch
The Hytera VM780 integrates a body camera with a remote speaker microphone, and allows users to perform video dispatch and command over 3G/4G/Wi-Fi.
Real-Time Monitoring
With 3G/4G/Wi-Fi, VM780 can transmit on-site real-time video back to the
command & dispatch center, to let the dispatcher see how events are actually
unfolding in the field.
Nationwide Communication Made Available
VM780 can initiate one-to-one and one-to-many calls with other VM780s over 3G/4G/Wi-Fi. The instant communications can greatly enhance work efficiency.
Batch Upgrade and Charge Devices
The kiosk BWC docking station simultaneously charges up to 20 BWCs. It is equipped with up to 64TB hard drive for mass evidence storage and four castors for enhanced portability.
Automatic Evidence Uploading, Management, Drive Space Free Up
The kiosk BWC docking station simultaneously acquires evidence from up to 20 BWCs when connected to them. The system automatically uploads the evidences to the digital evidence management platform and replay, edit and tag the evidence for categorization. In addition, it also automatically deletes old evidences to release drive space at interval.
The Bureau of Customs now has access to a complete BWC solution for video recording, management, and dispatch, which has enhanced information gathering, as well as boosting staff productivity and efficiency.
The BOC head office can now monitor actual scenarios in real-time thanks to the live video streaming capability of the VM780, thereby greatly increasing situational awareness and improving the speed and quality of decision making.
The Hytera VM780 and BWC platform has also greatly improved the efficiency and quality of evidence collection, as well as providing BOC staff with the ability to easily review evidence for potential prosecutions and for training purposes.
Voice from Customer
“Having a robust design, powerful audiovisual data recording capabilities, and a lot of other features, Hytera VM780 is easily the best overall body-worn camera available.”
SPCapt. Rodolfo Gonda, ESS Bureau of Customs
