Securing a Campaign Office in Farmington Hills with Cameras & Cloud Access Control

A note on confidentiality: Michigan Security Systems keeps our clients’ security details private. This case study is shared with permission and intentionally omits the client’s name, party, candidate, and exact address. We work with organizations across the political spectrum and stay strictly nonpartisan.

The Challenge

A campaign manager for a candidate running for federal office reached out to Michigan Security Systems to secure a campaign office in Farmington Hills, Michigan. Campaign offices present a specific security challenge: they fill up quickly with staff, volunteers, and visitors, they hold sensitive materials and equipment, and they can attract unwanted attention simply because of what they are. The people running the campaign needed to know that both the staff working inside and the property within the office were protected.

The campaign asked us to conduct a full security survey of the office and provide a proposal covering security cameras, access control, and an alarm system. They had clear requirements: they needed to retain both video footage and access-control records for at least 60 days, they wanted that data stored both onsite and in the cloud for redundancy, and they needed the ability to view live and recorded activity remotely. Just as important, they needed to control exactly who could enter the office and to have a reliable record of who came and went, and when.

The Solution

After surveying the office, Michigan Security Systems proposed and installed an integrated system built around two commercial-grade platforms we install as an authorized dealer: a Digital Watchdog IP network camera system and a PDK cloud-based access control system, tied together with alarm protection.

• 14 Digital Watchdog HD day/night cameras — delivering clean, clear 1080p/4K video across the office interior and entry points, with strong day-and-night performance so coverage holds up around the clock. The camera system was configured to retain a full 60 days of recorded video.
• PDK cloud-based access control — giving the campaign complete control over who can enter the building. From an app on their phones, authorized managers can add or remove users, program credentials, and grant or revoke building access instantly — useful for a fast-moving campaign where staff and volunteers change often. The system logs every entry and exit and can generate reports showing exactly who accessed the office and when.
• Onsite and cloud storage — both video and access records are stored locally on-premises and backed up to the cloud, meeting the campaign’s 60-day retention requirement with redundancy, so records survive even if onsite hardware is tampered with or damaged.
• Full remote access — managers can view live and recorded video and pull access-control event reports remotely, from anywhere, at any time.
• Alarm protection — rounding out the system to alert the campaign to unauthorized entry after hours.

As always, the system was designed and installed entirely by our own licensed Michigan technicians — no subcontractors — which matters even more for a client with legitimate privacy and security sensitivities.

The Result

The campaign office now has complete, integrated security: clear HD video coverage retained for 60 days, cloud-based access control that lets managers control and audit every entry from their phones, redundant onsite-and-cloud storage, and full remote visibility. Staff can work knowing the office and the people in it are protected, and campaign leadership has both real-time awareness and a reliable, reportable record of everything that happens at the office.

For any organization that needs to protect its people, control access tightly, and keep dependable records — whether it’s a campaign, a professional office, a medical practice, or a financial firm — this kind of integrated camera-and-access-control system delivers exactly that.

Why Michigan Security Systems

Organizations in Farmington Hills and across Oakland County choose Michigan Security Systems because we design and install integrated commercial security — cameras, access control, and alarms — with our own licensed technicians, professional-grade hardware from brands like Digital Watchdog and PDK, and complete discretion. We handle the survey, the proposal, the installation, remote-access setup, and training, and we stand behind the work with a full warranty. And we keep our clients’ security private, always.

If you operate an office in Farmington Hills, Novi, Southfield, Troy, Bloomfield Hills, or anywhere in Oakland County and need commercial security cameras, cloud access control, or alarm systems — with the discretion a sensitive operation requires — we’d be glad to conduct a confidential security survey of your property.