The Robbinsdale Police Department began employing digital video technology back in the late 90’s to improve security at its police station.

In recent years, the Robbinsdale Police Department experienced some issues with the quality of the audio and video recordings. They discovered that the audio and video were not in sync and when used in the courtroom, it raised some questions as to whether the video was tampered with.

The Robbinsdale Police Department outlined their specifications for upgrading their DVR system to improve their video quality and sent a request for proposal to ten vendors. They then narrowed their selection down to three candidates, one being Marco. “The customer service Marco displayed at the get go was impressive,” said Robbinsdale Police Department’s Captain Steven Smith. “They were friendly, knowledgeable, and they asked a lot of questions. We then found that we liked the March Networks product itself. It had some nice features and good video quality. And it eliminated the syncing issue we were experiencing with our old system.”

In April 2006, Marco installed a March Networks 4410 Digital Video Recording System with 12 two-way audio capabilities and 16 cameras. The DVR system records video from cameras externally and internally throughout the station including the interrogation room, booking areas, and lobby.

Any time people are in the police station after being placed under arrest and brought into the department’s booking facility, they are on video the entire time. Captain Smith explained, “We bring prisoners in on a daily basis and some are housed for up to 16 hours. All interaction with the prisoners needs to be recorded. We needed a system that is reliable and has good quality video for use in the courtroom.”

Captain Smith felt that the installation of the March Networks DVR was an easy process. He explained, “We’ve been impressed with Marco’s customer service! Usually a vendor’s service is typically high on the sales end and then diminishes. But Marco’s customer service before and after the sale has been outstanding! If we have any issues, I get an immediate response. Either a Marco technician is on-site or I get a call and they can walk through the issue over the phone with us.”

The police department found that the most beneficial feature of the new system is the ease of finding relevant video. The digital technology of the March Networks system has dramatically streamlined their search for archived video clips. “Our previous system was much more cumbersome,” said Captain Smith. “We have reduced the time spent searching for relevant video coverage by 50%. And we also have the ease of being able to burn and archive video clips on CD as needed.”

“I think everyone here believes it’s a much better system than our old one. I would highly recommend Marco!”