Case Study: Footscray Police Department achieves improved city‑wide safety and reduced crime with Genetec's Omnicast

Footscray Police Department Adopts Genetec Omnicast Video Surveillance Camera System to Increase Citywide Safety and Fight Crime

Footscray Police Department, serving the diverse suburb of Footscray in the City of Maribyrnong, was facing rising street-level crime (gang activity, drug trafficking, assaults, theft and vandalism) but lacked a permanent, city-wide video surveillance capability, leaving officers reactive rather than proactive. After an RFP process, integrators proposed a solution built around Genetec’s Omnicast video management platform (alongside Axis cameras, Dell servers and a Firetide wireless mesh) to meet requirements for scalability, ease of use and 99.9% availability.

Genetec’s Omnicast was deployed in about three months and now manages feeds from over 35 pole-mounted Axis cameras across 16 locations, delivered over a 400 Mbps Firetide mesh (20 nodes) to a 24 TB Dell storage array, with Omnicast features such as Failover Directory/Archiving, Auxiliary Archiving, Video Trickling, Federation and mobile access. The Footscray Police Department reports measurable impact: robberies and street offences have drastically decreased, patrols are more efficient and targeted, drug-related arrests have increased due to proactive monitoring, and video is regularly used to identify suspects and support prosecutions.

Footscray Police Department

Brendan O’Mahoney

Detective Acting Sergeant