Post from Community: Bridging the digital equity divide with affordable technology: Meet business owner, Howard Campbell | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Walnut Way
April 13, 2021
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“The compensation is seeing the community grow.”
Former Lindsay Heights resident and business owner Howard Campbell gives back through his services.
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When you meet Howard Campbell for the first time, something that immediately strikes you is how much care he gives to his business. Campbell is the owner of Custom Surveillance and Networking LLC, a community-based, full-service service security and networking company. Through his business, he offers surveillance cameras and alarm systems as well as networking solutions for homes and businesses.
Campbell came to this particular business because of his interest in electronics and computers at a young age. “I have always been passionate about technology as a whole,” he says. “I first started by working with computer repairs when I owned a small computer shop – throughout the years the demand increased, so I started doing residential repairs and quickly moved to commercial.”
From Campbell’s perspective, technology is universal, and to use this tool to secure properties and businesses is extremely important – especially if it can be used in his city and community. “My passion for this industry, as well as trying to create an environment where people are educated about Information Technology (IT) is what drives me.”
Custom Surveillance and Networking LLC was established in 2009 and has been doing great work in the city of Milwaukee since then. Campbell says that the company is geared towards the community with the goal of assisting in different ways.
Growing up in the Lindsay Heights neighborhood, Campbell remembers what it was like to be part of a community where one didn’t have much – but you had one another. Campbell says that he created lifetime friendships and bonds in Lindsay Heights that can’t be broken, and this is part of the reason why he is intent on giving back to his community by providing his quality surveillance services. “It is important to me to provide these services at a more affordable cost,” he says. “Yes, I could charge more, but for me, safety in my community– and for my friends in my community – is the number one priority,” he says. “The compensation is to see the community grow.”
Campbell says that his dream of giving back to his community by sharing his knowledge in technology was the push to start his own computer-building course for kids in the Lindsay Heights area. In the course, Campbell teaches them how to build computers, and the kids go home with their certificates at the end of the course.
It is this mindset that caught the ear of Walnut Way’s Executive Director, Antonio Butts. He had heard about Campbell’s impeccable work through a few other businesses in the neighborhood and offered him an opportunity to do work at the new Wellness Commons.
Campbell and his team were hired to work on the installation of the camera system and data at the new resilience hub, also known as the Innovations and Wellness Commons building. As part of that work, Custom Surveillance and Networking had changed out the cameras at the older building, and also implemented an app that makes it possible to monitor the cameras from anywhere with the use of a cellphone. These technologies and protections align with the goal of making the hub a safe place to create, work, and dream.
The hub work has also led to new projects with Walnut Way. “We think of him as one of Walnut Way’s primary consultants,” Antonio says. “When we consider upcoming projects, what we are doing with the current services in the building, and the surveillance across all of our sites, Howard is part of that.”
Campbell is excited to witness — and be a part of — the civic engagement, community building, and economic opportunities that are being created by Walnut Way, “Walnut Way is focused on making this community a safer and better place, which is exactly my goal and what I aim for with the work I provide.”
For more information on Howard Campbell’s business, Custom Surveillance and Networking, visit his website at www.customsurveillanceandnetworking.com.