22

Jun
2011

Caught in the Act: Video Security Today

June 22nd, 2011 | by admin admin | in Security Advice |    2   

When the Stanley Cup riot broke out last week, a Facebook page “Vancouver Riot Pics: Post Your Photos” was up within minutes. By the next day, the Vancouver Police had been flooded with 2,000 videos, photos and other tips – enough to crash their web server. As of June 21, the VPD has arrested more than 100 rioters and six face courtdates.

Compared to the handful of TV cameras providing crucial evidence in the 1994 riot, thousands of cell phones and digital cameras captured incriminating footage against rioters this time around. Those boasting about looting, vandalism and assaults on social media found their confessions broadcast as screen captures.

The overwhelming response to the VPD’s appeal for evidence highlights the tremendous role of video and the Internet in security management. Businesses, and homes, today can take advantage of rapidly evolving video technology. Simply recording endless hours of video for future use has become as obsolete as the video cassettes that once stored the footage.

Radius Security’s Iris video security system, for example, instantly builds video clips when an intruder triggers a sensor. The clip’s file size is small enough to be relayed immediately via cell phone to our local video monitoring centre. Our central station operators (CSOs) verify the intrusion and notify police. Iris continues generating video evidence, which can all be forwarded directly to police handsets.

Intelligent cameras, meanwhile, can be programmed to recognize specific patterns ofmovement. Video analytics software then raises the alarm when it detects suspicious activity. It can distinguish between a person and a dog wanderingthrough your property at 2 a.m. CSOs can then remotely direct the camera to pan, tilt and zoom in on the suspicious activity, and engage any intruders via live two-way audio feeds. The camera can even recognize a suspicious person’s gait and track their movement through a crowd – in a retail store or the airport, for example.

With these and other advances in digital video security management, it’s intriguing to imagine what will happen when Vancouver finally wins the Stanley Cup.

Links:

VPD riot updates, with instructions for submitting video evidence

Vancouver Riot Pics: Post Your Photos

To learn more about Radius Security's video security solutions, contact us today. And watch for our new video surveillance web site, coming soon.

Author: Susanna Chu