CCTV
Is deterring crime good risk treatment? The arguments for patrol services is that they provide a deterrent to criminal activity because their routes are somewhat ad hoc, meaning they don’t arrive at the client premises at the same time each night. Great in principle, but how do you measure it? How do you know if it is an effective risk treatment or not? The word deterrent comes up a lot as well with CCTV. Experience and industry knowledge tells us that if you put the right camera in the right place with the right lens, the outcome is a given. You know exactly what you will get. The deterrent factor is virtually impossible to qualify. Is having a CCTV camera looking at a doorway going to stop somebody from breaking in? It probably comes down to the motivation and confidence levels of the individual, rather than the presence of a CCTV camera or an ad hoc security patrol service. The alarm verification and response process is problematic, particularly when it takes as long as it does. From a risk management perspective, 45 minutes or more is a very long time and unlikely to provide any real value, other than give the client a trained resource to investigate on their behalf. Many alarm attendances are false alarms – this is across the industry. This particular council had nearly 200 alarm response attendances during the past year associated with their council depot. Just seven of those attendances were for genuine intrusions. Solutions are not as expensive as you may think Technology can have a positive impact and start to add some value in this given application. It comes down to establishing a reliable intrusion-detection system that includes real-time alarm verification capabilities. If the event can be confirmed as genuine, send security patrols and notify Police. Police will usually attend if a perpetrator is confirmed to be on site. If it’s possible to remotely investigate the alarm and verify it as a false alarm, there’s no need to send the patrol response, saving the $80 attendance fee in the process. To achieve this, it may mean some investment in strategically placed CCTV cameras to provide the level of coverage required. The beauty of modern CCTV cameras is that the Video Motion Detection (VMD), that now comes with many systems, is of a very high standard. It allows the cameras to not only witness and validate intrusions, but will provide additional detection capability as well. Using CCTV, virtual fence lines can be established that will allow detection inside the building perimeter, but can be programmed to ignore pedestrian and vehicle traffic outside the facility. Remote monitoring services are not expensive either. There are any number of graded control rooms that have the infrastructure in place to provide high quality, remote CCTV monitoring. The actual cost of the service would be recovered in six weeks of alarm attendances for this particular council client. Remote video monitoring allows operators to know within 90 seconds if the alarm event is genuine or not and if it requires escalation. Ninety seconds is a whole lot better than 45 minutes.
There may be some capital expenditure required to achieve the appropriate level of CCTV coverage. But again, when the combined costs of patrol and alarm attendances add up to what they can each year, an ROI period of two to three years is probably not unrealistic. There may be some capital expenditure required to achieve the appropriate level of CCTV coverage. But again, when the combined costs of patrol and alarm attendances add up to what they can each year, an ROI period of two to three years is probably not unrealistic. For sites that have existing CCTV systems as many do, the financial return could be much faster. Technology is getting smarter and cheaper Technology, market growth and the enormous number of CCTV vendors in Australia means the real cost of CCTV is coming down. CCTV systems are also getting smarter, with added features like License Plate Recognition and Biometrics becoming common in even the traditional DVR/NVR space. It’s no longer necessary to buy an enterprise level Video Management System to get features that can really add value, from both a detection and investigative perspective. VMD, Left Object, Removed Object and People Counting are becoming standard features of CCTV platforms that cost just AU$3,000 or $4,000 today. Many include mobile applications, enabling remote monitoring of the security and CCTV systems from anywhere there is mobile or internet coverage. CCTV has traditionally been about post incident investigation. The level of intelligence now built into many systems means CCTV can play a far more proactive role in securing commercial property. CCTV can be the alarm system, the impartial witness and the alarm verification service in one modular piece of hardware. The commercial argument for the use of security technologies over more traditional security practices has never been more valid, and in many instances will provide the client with a better outcome. About the Author Luke Percy-Dove is the Director and Principal Consultant of Matryx Consulting. He has been involved in the security industry for more than 19 years and has held senior advisory and management roles within national organisations. Holding qualifications in security and risk management, electronics and networking, Luke’s diverse industry experience includes perimeter security design for Government agencies, correctional facilities and defence applications. Luke has also designed large-scale networked security solutions for commercial and local Government applications throughout Australia. Luke is a licensed security consultant in Victoria, New South Wales, Western Australia and Queensland.
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