G4S and the Aarhus Municipality in Denmark, Aarhus Kommune in Danish, have entered into a multi-year agreement to collaborate on a complex and wide-ranging upgrade of the burglar alarm systems and video surveillance at hundreds of council owned and managed buildings. 

In the western and southern zones of the greater city area in east Jutland, G4S will audit the existing alarm systems in 285 buildings, ranging from schools and kindergartens to council buildings such as town halls, sport and leisure facilities, libraries, and community centres. 

This first phase is expected to take a year to complete, with a number of small, dedicated and specialist teams, including certified electricians and technicians, responsible for inspection, maintenance, servicing, and replacing the alarms respectively. Over time, technicians will become embedded with the customer in terms of their knowledge, which will help to optimise the service and value for money provided by G4S.

“This is a huge and complex project to collaborate with Aarhus Kommune to really understand exactly what they have in each of these buildings through the deployment of our dedicated teams,” said Søren Bergenhammer Rasmussen, Key Account Manager for G4S in Denmark. “Once we understand what is there we will maintain and upgrade those systems.”

Sustainability commitments

Not only will the teams maintain, service and fix alarm systems and install technology where it is needed, they will also refurbish and reuse older systems to extend their lifespan.

Sustainability commitments agreed between Aarhus Kommune and G4S include the ongoing electrification of G4S' car fleet so that everyone working on the contract drives an electric vehicle. It also includes the installation of high-quality products with the longest possible lifespan and a major focus on servicing, repairing, and optimising the municipality's existing equipment.

“An important part of our partnership is our commitment to sustainability and reducing CO2 emissions. Some systems can be upgraded. We have our own refurbishment centre where we restore technology to work better and for longer,’ said Søren. 

"When equipment cannot be refurbished, we will focus on recycling the technology waste. At G4S Denmark we have a recyclability rate of almost 100%. We collect more than 170 tons of electronic waste every year, and we refurbish or recycle almost everything."

Video monitoring

Across the whole of the Aarhus region, G4S will also audit the video monitoring cameras installed in more than 500 buildings. New cameras will be installed where they don’t exist and licences for those will be acquired. The team will service and maintain all of the new and existing technology equipment. 

“What the Municipality wants to achieve is to reduce the number of different systems that exist. Previously they had multiple suppliers and the aim is to now standardise the solutions to make maintenance much more efficient and to improve safety and security,” said Søren.

Aarhus Kommune  has installed an intelligent video management surveillance system - an Axxon Unified VMS platform - which allows monitoring in real-time any incidents across Aarhus. G4S will add cameras, loudspeakers, and licences to stream video and audio as part of the Aarhus IT setup.

This new installation will allow operators in the municipality’s control room to see every video feed in one place. They will have the ability to communicate directly with unauthorised persons through a loudspeaker system.