Entering an Era of Safer Cities: Vladimir Cizelj, PhD and VLATACOM’s Smart and Safe City Solution

Urban environments around the globe continue to experience the trend of growing populations. To remain citizen-friendly spaces, city governments have to adopt the concepts that support their sustainable development. The ideas of Smart and Safe Cities represent complex projects and local governments and police departments need to work together with technology providers to meet each city’s unique requirements. Moreover, solution providers such as Vladimir Cizelj, PhD, and the Vlatacom Institute have to stay at the forefront of innovation to provide scalable solutions that deliver multifaceted benefits.

Smart City and Safe City Concepts

The Smart City and Safe City concepts represent the needs of modern societies. The two ideas are interconnected and cannot be observed separately. A Smart City’s key aspect is its safety, and a Safe City uses smart technology to achieve set goals.

However, this broad definition can only serve as an umbrella interpretation as both concepts are multilayered when it comes to their features. Furthermore, they include critical infrastructures such as physical, IT, social, and business infrastructures.

The first framework on which all other aspects heavily rely is traffic. Therefore, traffic control and management are among the first points that city governments focus on when they start implementing the Safe City concept.

Safe City Solutions

Solutions that help local stakeholders address the challenges of traffic management include various surveillance systems and smart video analytics. Technology and innovation providers like the research institute led by Vladimir Cizelj, PhD employ the latest technological advancements and create solutions that support the implementation of Safe City models.

Among a vast array of systems, the focus here will be put on License Plate Recognition (LPR) and video surveillance systems as critical tools for improving public safety.

License Plate Recognition Systems

License Plate Recognition systems can have a significant impact on crime rates and the law enforcement’s field activities.

The approach of Vladimir Cizelj’s team was to create a modular solution that can easily be scaffolded on existing systems. In that way, current video surveillance or traffic control systems do not have to be entirely replaced which further means less investment.

There are two systems created by Vlatacom that can elevate modern transportation and security-related systems.

The first one is the Vlatacom Automated Number Plate Recognition (vANPR) applied for the identification of vehicles. As a result, safety, traffic offense spotting, and surveillance are improved. The vANPR is a system with advanced video processing features and can easily detect over 40 types of license plates of vehicles moving even at high speeds up to 180 km/h.

Typically, systems like this are installed near schools, hospitals, and other city points where vehicle speed must be strictly adjusted.

Secondly, there is the Mobile ANPR which has the purpose of aiding field officers with tasks such as identification of stolen vehicles or license plates, identification of cars whose owners have an unregulated insurance policy or fines, and even vehicles owned by persons wanted by the law.

The system is made to be installed on police patrol cars and scan license plates for parked cars or cars in traffic. Scanned images are checked against databases or watch-lists and raise alarms if a suspect or a suspect’s vehicle is spotted, or if there is a parking violation. Altogether, the Mobile ANPR provides more overview and control to the law enforcement officer and enables them to quickly react to any irregularities recorded by the system.

Vlatacom’s ORAO Platform

Vlatacom’s ORAO (Observe Recognize Analyze Operate) platform is used to facilitate the integration of various peripheral sensors.

In order to create a Smart and Safe City the key factor that is needed is communication. Each department and management system within the city must have a central hub and method to communicate with one another.

An example of this would be if there was a fire in one part of the city, it could be alerted automatically through the building’s management system. Next, the emergency response vehicles could be sent, and while it’s on its way, traffic management would ensure that their route is the quickest by controlling the lights to make a clear path for them to pass. In this one example, it can be observed how multiple otherwise not connected systems would work together in the Smart and Safe City.

The ORAO solution has the following features:

• Integration of all current surveillance systems (CCTV cameras, electro-optical systems, radar systems, movement detection sensors, and other sources)
• Efficient incident detection and localization
• Real-time information gathering and sharing (early warning)
• Communication with everyone involved so the right action can be taken in every situation
• Quicker response
• Analysis of each emergency situation to improve processes and responses for future incidents
• Scalable architecture
• Modular, open, and expandable solution
• Integration with existing communication and information technology infrastructure into a powerful unified system.

ORAO is a platform that is used in Command and Control centers. It is infinitely scalable and can be used from small neighborhoods to entire cities. It handles the integration of all the sensors such as vANPR, communication systems, data sources, and third-party applications to manage and analyze the data.

Benefits of Safe City solutions

The benefits of successful implementation of Safe City solutions can lead to significant ROI in terms of safety, social, and economic benefits.

Solutions made by technology providers like Vladimir Cizelj, PhD can have a direct impact on public safety. Furthermore, police departments are given the ability to respond to any irregularities more quickly and effectively. Thanks to efficient security responses, citizens are able to enjoy all the aspects of city life safely which directly impacts their perception and appreciation of the city government and police departments.

Finally, improved public safety brings economic benefits as citizens and tourists feel safer about their retail spending for instance. Also, safe cities with optimal traffic control and management attract investments which are further connected to employment rates in urban areas.

Vladimir Cizelj, PhD and Vlatacom

Many societal advances would not have come at such a fast pace if it weren’t for the innovators like Vladimir Cizelj and his team at the Vlatacom research and development institute.

With a mission to improve national public safety by harnessing sophisticated technologies, Vladimir Cizelj established the institute back in 1997. Thanks to continuous investment in human capital or education of their experts and employees, the research facility directed by Vladimir Cizelj has established itself as the go-to professional partner for government security across the world.

An important milestone in the development of Vlatacom is becoming the first private R&D institute in the field of ICT in Serbia. The milestone has reinforced the Institute’s market position and reach which resulted in various projects in countries in Southeastern Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Final thoughts

Safe Cities represent the smart environments of today and tomorrow. The evolution of this concept is driven by the dynamic development of urban settlements. Local governments need to make investments into systems that will enable cities to continue to be safe places with optimal living conditions.

To do so, they need to work more closely with local stakeholders such as police departments and partner with technology providers like Vladimir Cizelj to create solutions that have to meet the unique needs of cities. By putting everything into perspective and investing in backbone systems such as traffic management, cities can make Safe City projects a success.