Detection
people detection on outdoor cameras can help false alerts when compared to typical motion It can also be used to monitor safety by alerts when people are detected in dangerous heavy machinery at a factory.
solution can also reduce the time it takes to an event or streamline live monitoring by footage without people.
Help enable law enforcement agencies citizen safety, emergency situations, and people feel safe as a result. Interested in dependable technology for a changing world?
www.axis.com/smart-cities or AXIS, option 1
Technology can add a great amount of support to the public safety space. From smart traffic to predictive policing, technology has seen a significant increase in doing more with less. High-quality video technologies, IoT sensors and analytics are delivering numerous benefits in public safety and security, urban mobility, and environmental monitoring. How can we incorporate surveillance solutions to help on the security and safety front?
Maintain and analyze traffic flow
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a dramatic drop in use of public transport, putting more cars, bicycles and pedestrians on the street. To allow for an efficient flow of traffic, data and insights from video-based traffic management solutions help cities react to these changes in urban mobility. When the pandemic ends, the same solutions can be used to analyze daily traffic, minimize gridlock and make improvements that will maintain control of intersections, simplify incident management, and monitor the status of pedestrians and cyclists.
cameras are simple to use in the field by officers and security personnel who may be in stressful situations, poor weather conditions or poorly lit areas. Use our body worn solution to investigate scenes, provide training opportunities and much more or check out the recent press release from Town of New Windsor, NY to see how they plan to use it.
Make life smarter in the city with remote monitoring
Knowing what is going on around you is key in many applications. Video from multiple remote sites can be centrally monitored to provide complete situational awareness and the possibility to react to events in real time. Remote monitoring benefits all kinds of applications, from data centers to national parks to health care facilities.
Improve crowd management
As our cities grow, so do the crowds. Many people in one place challenge both the infrastructure and security of a city, so it is essential to be able to oversee and guide large groups of people. By understanding crowd dynamics and behaviour, it is possible to maintain and improve public safety? Solutions from Axis Communications offer high quality video to help count people, monitor social distancing and gather insights for further improvements. Automated notifications, based on pre-set rules, can help safety authorities redirect people and traffic, or plan and execute evacuations.
Wearable technology that works
Axis’ body worn camera solutions let you store and handle video on-site or in the cloud, using your systems or ours. Body worn
Protect valuable data
Staying compliant with safety and security regulations means that you must be able to detect, verify, identify, track and deter intruders from your data center in real-time. The same tools - a combination of cameras and access control - can be used to grant access to visitors from one location and over multiple sites for greater convenience.
All of the scenarios we highlight are all addressed with smart solutions which allow us to adhere to pandemic regulations today while investing in greater convenience and efficiency tomorrow. Are you looking for ways to incorporate new technologies into your day-to-day operations? Be part of the conversation at our upcoming Public Safety Forum: Leveraging technology today, for a better tomorrow on April 14th.
Attending this event will allow the opportunity to learn from major technology providers such as Intel and Telus as they partner with local Canadian cities, including City of Winnipeg and City of Calgary, to discuss “Smart Cities” and how technology can be leveraged today and into the future. Click here to register and learn more.
Mass notification technology has played an increasing role for workplaces fractured by the pandemic
By Neil Sutton
Mass notification tools have played an important role during the ongoing COVID-19 saga, from the initial shock of a pandemic declaration to the implementation of work-from-home policies, still in place almost a year later.
Traditionally seen as an emergency management alerting system, the use of the technology has changed as different stages of the pandemic rolled out over time.
The tone of the pandemic has been that of a sustained state
of emergency over many months, but the first few weeks were a total unknown to most people as they grappled with a scenario they may have only read about or seen in movies.
“In the beginning, the whole idea of mass notification for COVID was around informing the community on a regular basis. People were scared. It was all new,” says Claudia Dent, senior vice-president of product marketing at Burlington, Mass.-based Everbridge.
“The cadence was incredibly rich in the beginning. There were some public organizations that were communicating twice a day with regular reminders on ‘wash your hands,’ etc. Then it evolved a little bit more.”
Organizations began to use their emergency communications platforms more frequently as means to stay in touch with a dispersed and frequently isolated employee population, says Dent. In the absence of office culture and regular gatherings, employees can lose touch.
“We saw messaging traffic during the last year balloon,” she says. “It wasn’t because of an emergency evacuation or fire or a blizzard coming… [those are] moments in time, so to speak. This was an ongoing set of communications across both public and corporate [networks] to really keep everybody engaged.”
A message sent over a mass notification system may have more resonance than those sent over email or text, which are easier to set aside or ignore, argues Caroline Kilday, director of marketing at Alertus Technologies, based in Beltsville, Md.
She says the most common users of mass notification systems have traditionally been large institutions like higher education, health care and enterprises, but the pandemic has certainly widened the appeal of the technology. Adoption rates were already climbing “but I feel like the pandemic has expedited that even more so,” she says. “It’s not just for emergency alerts but for organizational communications.”
In many cases, organizations might be dealing with split populations with some, or most, employees working from home while essential workers are on site, necessitating a multi-pronged approach to communications. Kilday advises users to make use of different templates or colours to ensure that messaging is understood and there is a clear delineation between an organizational message and an emergency one.
One aspect of the pandemic where mass notification has really come into its own is health assessments.
Dent says that Everbridge introduced packages enabling customers to send out daily wellness checks to their employees who were still coming into work. Depending on the system configuration, employees could respond to questions via a system of checkmarks or in other cases generate a QR code which would then be used via a mobile device to gain entry into a building for the day. The system can also be tied into capacity counting to determine on-site occupancy. “That’s been leveraged very heavily across all our corporate customers,” says Dent.
Building capacity tolerances could change due to updates in local COVID-19 restrictions, and the system has to flex accordingly. “But we could manage all that over time,” she says.
Pandemic policies can also vary quite widely jurisdiction to jurisdiction and nation to nation. Likewise, privacy regulations are also going to differ based on location, which will affect how personal health information is gathered and processed. Users are able to send different messages to different areas of the globe so they can be in compliance with local regulations, says Dent. “The people in France get one message, the people in Toronto get another, the people in London get another — but they were all wellness checks.”
Ottawa-based Genasys Communications Canada (which was Amika Mobile prior to its acquisition by Genasys last October) is currently working with the Canadian federal government to help test new capabilities to enforce its quarantine rules.
Utilizing its Situation Commander and Mapper products, the emergency communication and notification company is
helping the government keep track of COVID-19 cases and anyone they may have come into contact with. The software manages this data privately and securely, says Dr. Sue AbuHakima, who is the company’s vice-president of operations and business development and also chairperson of ASIS International’s Ottawa chapter.
During the pandemic, “I think the most critical use of our product has been around all the COVID-19 messaging and the government agency alerts,” says Abu-Hakima, who adds that she has also seen an increased overall demand for mass notification solutions over the past year.
“The enterprise is still issuing messages to their employees, even though they’re remote,” she says. “[They’re] trying to keep their hand on their pulse, to make sure they’re healthy and safe.”
But while the mass exodus from workplaces has reduced the likelihood of some types of emergencies, it hasn’t negated them all. There are now more lone workers in facilities that were previously full of people, argues Abu-Hakima. “They may
With the pandemic about to enter its second year, crisis consultant Suzanne Bernier urges organizations to offer steadfast support to their employees.
Compliance that was the norm in the early months of the pandemic may be waning due to apathy (or “COVID fatigue”) and the hope on the horizon that a vaccine will readily available. But this is exactly the time when vigilance and awareness is needed most, says Bernier, president of SB Crisis Consulting.
The pandemic plans that were formed in the early 2000s didn’t account for these kinds of variables, she says. We may be in the midst of a second wave of the virus right now, but we will likely see a third, according to Bernier.
“There’s still going to be some challenges and we’re still going to have to mask up,” she says. “We need to keep driving the message that they need to wear their masks, they need to wash their hands with soap and water.”
What is also required is a plan to provide mental health resources for employees, she adds, “and steering them to the right places to get that support.”
If the pandemic has taught organizations anything, it’s that they need to be prepared for the next emergency and have an effective communication plan in place.
“The pandemic itself is something that we’re going to get over with several vaccines coming,” says Bernier. “But that doesn’t mean we’re not going to get another pandemic or some kind of epidemic or something else that’s of concern within the next few years. Hopefully not, but we need to stay vigilant about it.”
be more at risk [so] you’re still having to maintain an eye on that,” she says.
The pandemic may be an ever-present and persistent situation, other but emergencies can still arise. Civil unrest and riots, particularly in the U.S., are examples where mass messaging has been deployed “to keep people safe and let them know what’s going on and enforce lockdowns and curfews. There have been other factors, I think, that have continued in the world that have still required that the technology be leveraged to some extent,” says Abu-Hakima.
Remote work may be an essential precaution right now but it seems unlikely to disappear after the virus has been squashed. Assuming that the work-from-home trend persists well into the future, mass notification can continue to serve as a lifeline to keep staff engaged.
“We saw messaging traffic during the last year balloon.”
— Claudia Dent, Everbridge
Mass notification has come a long way in recent years, says Abu-Hakima. Part of a larger trend where there is an increasing degree of convergence between physical and logical security systems, mass notification can be integrated with access control, gunshot detection, panic buttons, intrusion detection and other security tools, she says. There is also increased interest in tying more alerting systems into border crossings, adds Abu-Hakima, since international travel has come under heavy scrutiny as a key variable in the spread and containment of COVID-19.
While the pandemic can’t last forever, it’s impact on work habits and lifestyle is likely to be felt for years to come.
Companies may also be more likely to hire staff who live in other cities or provinces. “Now that everyone’s remote, you can also leave a company and go to a new company more easily,” says Dent. “We’ve hired people at Everbridge without them even coming to an office… and I know this is happening all throughout the industry. Our customers are doing the same thing.”
The notion of “duty of care” is also changing in response to these shifts in organizational structure, adds Dent. Employees could be working in a facility, travelling overseas or simply be at home most of the time. Mass notification tools offer a “continuum of communication,” she says, covering a diversity of locations as well as situations that could range from employee outreach and check-ins to natural disasters to cybersecurity alerts.
“I think there was a bit of a narrower view of what a mass notification system could do for an organization,” adds Kilday. “The pandemic has broadened that scope.”
The city of Rome, Georgia, is a mid-size, vibrant city that is home to four colleges and a minor league baseball team. The largest city in Northwest Georgia, it is a regional center for healthcare, education and manufacturing and has served as the filming location for the popular Netflix series Stranger Things and Marvel Comic’s movie Black Widow.
Like many progressive cities, officials in Rome, Georgia wanted to leverage technology to increase its situational awareness. Specifically, the city wanted to address safety and maintenance issues related to monitoring its government buildings, parking garages, water treatment facility and roadways.
With hundreds of cameras spread out over a 15-to20-mile radius, the city struggled with how to view and manage its surveillance system. Many of its cameras were not connected to an IP network, which required the city to schedule an employee to manually retrieve a full SD card and insert a new one.
“It was not a low maintenance system and it took a lot of resources and time,” said Johnny Bunch, director of technology services, Rome, Georgia. “It wasn’t convenient for anybody in the city.”
In addition, the city struggled with providing across the board access to its surveillance footage from different departments. For example, surveillance from the water district was only accessible to those within that department and the police department and city manager could not easily view video. The old surveillance system set-up required downloading the video to a USB drive that would then have to be given to an individual to access.
Bunch said the city decided to move to a cloud-based surveillance system because it provided them with greater versatility and accessibility across multiple departments. The cloud-based surveillance system could also leverage the existing legacy cameras in place, so long as the infrastructure provided access to power and an internet connectivity either through fiber, copper, a wireless connection or cellular networks.
After reviewing different surveillance and security solutions, the city selected Cloudvue from Johnson Controls. The solution enabled the city to leverage its existing surveillance cameras while also providing an integrated local storage solution combined with cloud storage connectivity.
“One advantage with Cloudvue is it supports a large number of cameras. So, cameras we had already purchased we could keep,” said Bunch. “We have had a pretty good return on investment on those cameras and then as the (older) cameras break down we can replace them.”
Now with Cloudvue in place, the city is able to remotely
access and view surveillance from the entrance of the police department, municipal building lobby areas, and an equipment storage area for the fire department. The city is also using Cloudvue to proactively monitor for vandalism in its parking garages and cemeteries.
Perhaps one of the biggest benefits has been felt by the city’s utilities and critical infrastructure operations, where surveillance is used to monitor and help with employee safety. Instead of needing two people as part of a walkthrough inspection at the filter plants, Cloudvue enables the city to have one person physically inspect equipment while another person can remotely monitor for safety from the office. This makes operation more efficient, but still adheres to safety protocols.
The city also installed microphones on some cameras so it can remotely listen to pump stations and visually inspect them. City workers can make sure they are working properly without have to drive out to remote locations. This saves workers anywhere from 30 mins to one hour of driving for each inspection. This saves the City of Rome a tremendous amount of money over the course of a year.
According to Bunch, minimal training was required in order for employees to use Cloudvue. “We show someone how to log in and how to install the app on their mobile phone or tablet,” he said. It’s been extremely low maintenance.”
With Cloudvue installed, the city of Rome, Georgia looks forward to continuing to use the system as a workforce multiplier as part of the city’s daily operations, proving Cloudvue to be a valuable tool that goes beyond security applications.
Learn more about leveraging visual data to increase operational efficiency. See how organization across different industries use cloud video surveillance and cloud access control for more than just security. https://www.cloudvue.io/smarter-operations
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Dec. 31, 2020 was a highly anticipated date.
We were going to put the old, pandemic ridden year behind us and embrace all that 2021 was to bring. And then January happened.
We’re dealing with the aftermath of a massive information security breach and an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol Building — security failures that placed networks, intellectual property, lives and democracy at risk. Are we still in 2020, the Director’s Cut?
to security. We can’t just assume the controls we selected and installed a while ago are still the best option to reduce risks today. We saw what can happen when we don’t maintain this vigilance. Let’s not forget this lesson as we lean into the new year.
“The goal is not to be alarmist but to be realistic in our assessments.”
There will be significant resources expended on these, and other, incidents. The SolarWinds breach will continue to be diagnosed and more warnings will be issued — on top of what already has been advised by experts across the globe.
The assault on the U.S. Capitol will be dissected as a colossal security and intelligence failure. As I write this article, I’m listening to news outlets update the world on the lack of inter-agency communication and questioning how local law enforcement agencies did not pick up on the chatter broadcast days before Jan. 6.
What these events — and all of 2020 — have emphasized for me is to continually focus on risk, communication and resilience. As security professionals, we need to learn (again) from these events and bring those lessons back to our organizations.
We need to spend more time assessing the controls we have in place to reduce risks. We must start checking these controls on a regular basis to see if they’re working as expected, and still offering the protection against the risks we initially identified. It means more work for security professionals, but this needs to become a part of our overall risk-based approach
Communication needs to be increased between security professionals, law enforcement agencies, and executives within organizations. I’ve taken this task on within my organization. I’m spending more time with external agencies and other security departments across Canada to share information on threats we’re facing and plans we’re putting into place to reduce risk. It’s going to take time, but the value of developing these relationships and creating this information-sharing approach will benefit all of our organizations. This includes the relationships I’m developing with law enforcement in my city and others.
Increasing our communication with executive leadership is another avenue we must all explore. We need to update our executives on the risks we’re discovering if we’re not doing this already. The goal is not to be alarmist but to be realistic in our risk assessments and objective in our presentation of potential likelihoods and impacts. Getting our executives onboard with our risk management program is critical to keeping them, and all our assets, secure.
Finally, I found myself thinking more about resilience for this first part of 2021. Recovering from a breach — whether it’s logical or physical — is something we all hope our organizations can achieve. Hope isn’t a plan, though. This is the time we need to collaborate within our teams, other departments and agencies to walk through our incident response plans and how we’ll recover from an incident. We need to be flexible, agile, open-minded and diligent in our incident planning process.
We survived 2020. We can get through 2021. I promise!
Tim McCreight is the acting chief security officer for The City of Calgary (www.calgary.ca).
