My Condo was too cheap to hire a pro.
When they hired me in July of 2017
I had no idea I was going to be in charge of reviewing this antiquated system( and EYEMAX pc with 2 gigs of ram and Windows 7 32 bit) and the ensuing Circus and the Clownshows that go on thru-out the week.
So started the journey to find out that CCTV had gone to IP cams and Coax had been replaced by POE cabling.
Tried upgrading a couple cams, which helped quite a bit,
But realized I had no EYES outside........and the parking lots were occasionally targeted for door checking, and a late night parking spot for the drunk and high type people.
Google searching landed me on Ipcamtalk a few times, and i picked up a few pointers and realized my system was F-ed.
took awhile and some hard knocks to get up to speed. But eventually we started getting the less professional impulse criminals who drove their own car in.....and started generating Case#'s with the Sheriff's office.
But when Covid hit, and George Floyd rioting was going on.....we did get beat by masks and stolen cars with stolen plates.
But it also forced us to beef up our exterior doors and locking mechanisms, and
rekey our Postal boxes, after an Asian gang somehow got a hold of the " key to the city" and were opening blue mailboxes and Condo mail box systems al over town with Identity theft, check forging etc....all the fun stuff.
We had old ladies running to the bank to secure their accounts. complete shit show.
But because of the Cameras, we finally figured out how we were being victims of identity theft.
So the cameras do help when you see changes in behavior patterns of cars and residents, and who belongs and who is suspicious.
But i reveiwed the footage most mornings to see who came thru the parking lots. and thats where we saved video from suspicious cars, and then when they revisted to pull a crime, we already had their plates and vehicle description and could show a " pattern" of suspicious behavior, which helped LEO's at times.
I took us from from video like this.
to a screen like this
and eventually like this