People, processes. and potential

The political, social, business and technological environments are together rapidly changing the mandate of the modern security manager.

Security is now firmly in the spotlight, with the Government debating national ID cards, how to combat suicide bombings and other terrorist threats and reviewing how the country is policed. As a result, everyone from Board level downwards in the major organisations is being forced to ask the questions: “Do we have the security processes, people and technology in place to meet current and future challenges?” and: “How can we improve on our defences?”

With the long-standing barriers between security and IT beginning to come down (as organisations recognise the cost savings and broader business benefits that can be made by merging security and IT on to a single network), it is abundantly clear that IT has a part to play in the overall defence ‘solution’ – but that too has an impact on the people involved, and the way in which they work.

As CCTV installations are refurbished and expanded, dealing with the torrent of visual data bombarding the Control Room is a fundamental obstacle that must be addressed. Most of the time, the majority of these cameras are not being efficiently monitored. At any given moment, only a small proportion of locations may be seen in a typical Control Room which then limits the probability of an event being detected. This is not to discredit the operator, as human perception has evolved to ignore small changes. As such, a briefcase left in the busy concourse of a rail station could easily go unnoticed among the hustle and bustle of the crowd.

Training does help here, but lots of busy images can be distracting. Inevitably, important occurrences will be missed. In the same way everyone stared at the ‘magic eye’ posters, and in spite of total concentration on them, the images contained within would not reveal themselves to all. By the same equation, even the most highly motivated CCTV Control Room officer will miss the majority of activity after his or her initial 20 minutes on duty.

If we know that security officer monitoring can be flawed thanks to the traits of human nature, perhaps we should be looking at whether or not elements of the event detection process could be automated?

Tomorrow’s technology today

While television programmes and major films including Spooks and the Bond epics tend to glamorise surveillance technology of the future, genuine innovations are being developed today that can have, will have and indeed are already having a major impact in the Control Rooms of shopping centres, airports, warehouses, correctional facilities, casinos and across major transport routes.

Whether you realise it or not, it is likely that you are already building the technological foundations for your company’s ‘security future’ by way of your digital video recorder(s) (DVR). In the past 12 months, DVR sales raced ahead of those for analogue systems for the very first time. Now, there is no looking back...

In combination with integrated and smart digital video, not to mention audio capture and content analytics solutions, DVRs are enabling the automation of otherwise tedious detection processes – a term often referred to by many practitioners as ‘smart monitoring’.

In order to picture how smart monitoring of monotonous processes might work in an everyday situation, consider the perimeter road of any airport. This is a highly vulnerable location that requires constant surveillance. Constant surveillance that can be little short of a mind-numbing activity even for a highly-skilled CCTV operator. However, if that operator can rely on technology to raise an alert should a vehicle or person enter a restricted zone (allowing them to play back the course of events running up to the incident while still monitoring the live situation), it would enable a quick decision to be made.

The appropriate course of action may then be taken (whether that entails sending a security officer to deal with an incident, continuing to assess an event or dismissing the alert altogether) while at the same time empowering the operator to complete other important tasks.

Likewise, the same smart monitoring can be used for access control. Any access point with heavy throughput (such as a London Underground station turnstile during the rush hour) renders the manual identification of a security breach almost impossible. Even at relatively quiet locations, asking a security officer to identify – and verify – a potential incident relies on them looking at the right monitor at the right time.

Visions of the near future

In today’s totally security conscious world, trusting to luck is a luxury that no-one can afford. Using the same technology to automatically detect tailgating, someone jumping over a barrier or loitering on a platform could prove to be invaluable.

Using smart monitoring processes, human resources can be refocused to enable the team to play to its fullest strengths. Humans may not be conditioned to concentrate on monitors, but they are very adept at making decisions based on the information presented to them. That trait will not be replaced by technology, at least not in the short term anyway! By using smart monitoring to delegate this process to the team on the ground, it enables more resources to be deployed from the Control Room to site, takes pressure off the CCTV operator and thereby improves overall responsiveness.

To illustrate how the effectiveness of this process change can have a direct impact on a typical daily occurrence for the security team, imagine an increased presence of uniformed security officers operating on the busy concourse of a railway station. CCTV cameras are in place, and are monitoring every vulnerable location. They also provide an effective visual deterrent.

The system automatically identifies a briefcase as ‘unattended’, and duly sends an alert to the officer team on their handheld PDA devices. Members of the team then immediately play back the camera footage to see a man leaving the briefcase on the floor and walking away. An assessment of the potential risk/threat is made, and of the best course of action – whether it is to evacuate the area, safely remove the briefcase or track the movements of the man (or perhaps all three).

The core objectives of creating a safe and secure environment are the same as ever, but using technology can help to both instil and enforce security processes by making them that much smarter

The smart approach

The scenario talked about may indeed sound ‘of the future’. However, the management team at Changi Airport in Singapore is taking a leading role in its investment in smart monitoring, and is setting an industry benchmark in the use of technology.

The costs and operational impact of shutting an airport are astronomical. Changi is served by 74 airlines connecting Singapore to 170 cities across 53 countries. The airport is the second largest in the Asia Pacific region and is recognised worldwide for its efficiency, facilities and first class passenger security. When Terminal 3 opens next year, it will expand the airport’s annual capacity by a staggering 20 million passengers to 64 million.

To address the requirements of significantly more complex passenger security demands, Changi Airport’s management team is enhancing its detection and identification of potential security threats. Advanced video content analytics integrated with cameras will boost airport security.

With this project, Changi becomes the first major international airport to launch the deployment of video content analytics on such a large scale, providing its security team with the power to identify risk in real time, make assessments and take action that improves security process efficiency to a great degree.

Post-incident investigation

Until now we have focused on real-time detection, and yet a considerable amount of time and resources are needed to trawl video footage for post-incident investigation and evidence collation.

As DVRs continue to replace analogue VCRs, so incident investigation procedures may be improved dramatically. Trying to find the 10 seconds of critical footage among a mass of unstructured visual data captured by hundreds – or even thousands – of cameras can be like hunting for a needle in a haystack.

The same smart digital video, audio capture and content analytics being used for real-time can also provide a searchable library. For example, if the police ask for the movements of a suspect from Point A to Point B, the operator may quickly search, retrieve and review all of the relevant footage and then send it off for evidence purposes.

James Darcy – vice-president of corporate compliance and security at Caesars Entertainment – has offered this comment on the recent implementation of smart monitoring technology within his own organisation: “Digitising our gaming surveillance to match the digital surveillance we currently use in security operations will enable us to work far more effectively as a department.”

Darcy added that the system would… “provide us with instant access to surveillance video at the touch of a finger, instead of requiring us to sort through stacks of analogue tapes just like we have been forced to do for many years.”

Bridging the skills gap

It is important to note that, as technology continues to advance, so too must the skills sets of security personnel.

Of course, every security officer will already be familiar with two-way radio and the use of VCRs. However, PDAs, DVRs and content analytics software will require a new level of re-skilling. While it is not so important for end users to know how the given technology works, security officers will be expected to be able to use it, and use it well. This proficiency will inevitably have an impact on the staffing and recruitment of the security team.

As well as ensuring that the team on the ground is equipped and skilled, there is inevitably going to be a knowledge gap at management level that must be addressed as two historically disparate functions converge. Security managers will need to interact closely with the IT manager. In turn, IT managers must start to plan for unfamiliar applications – including live security video and access control – on their network.

Most important of all, the security team needs to act as an adaptable, responsive and proactive unit. The core objectives of creating a safe and secure environment are the same as ever, but deploying technology can help to both instil and enforce security processes by making them that much smarter.

Using digital video networking, recording and analysis maximises information availability and reduces information overload. It also equips the security team to face new challenges that require faster action on the back of far better-informed decision-making.