A 46% drop in crime: how Winn Residential secured its Washington, D.C. community with Kastle

About Winn Residential Properties

Winn Residential Properties is an affordable housing community in Southeast Washington, D.C., managed by WinnCompanies. The property spans 46 buildings and 200 private parking spaces.

The challenge

Several factors pushed Winn to strengthen security at the property. Disruptive tenant behavior was on the rise, along with vandalism and property damage, and parking rules were going unenforced. Budget constraints ruled out putting a guard in all 46 buildings, and before Kastle got involved, the property had no electronic security system at all. Winn needed a more scalable way to monitor the entire community without adding significantly more guards.

The solution

Kastle’s Urban Alarm team, a Washington, D.C.-based business unit that joined Kastle in 2017, designed and implemented a remote guarding solution combining 24/7 live and event-based remote patrol video monitoring with on-site security dispatch support. AI-enabled IP cameras cover the property’s access points, lobbies, common spaces, laundry and community rooms, and stairwells.

The system gives Urban Alarm’s operations center a real-time view of the entire property, so operators can verify an incident as it happens and respond immediately, including through remote loudspeaker intervention that addresses loitering or disruptive behavior directly at the scene.

The outcome

Winn’s property is now protected by 24-hour video surveillance with remote loudspeaker intervention and around-the-clock live and event-based monitoring. The solution has cut down on loitering, decreased property vandalism, and helped reduce the overall crime rate in the community, as Winn can now collaborate more closely with the local police department to resolve criminal cases faster.

Live and event-based video monitoring has also let Winn reduce the number of physical guards on-site while improving the overall effectiveness of the security program. Remote monitoring has facilitated quicker emergency response, since Urban Alarm’s operations center can see and react to developing situations in real time and deploy the most appropriate response, whether on-site security, police, fire, or EMS.

“It’s proven to not only be a security-focused solution, but one that’s also alleviating other challenges we faced, including tenant infractions, centralized reporting, and parking management,” Davis says.