Computer vision vs the guards - the end of the security control room?

In a system run by machines the weakest link tends to be anything relying on human interaction. This is no more evident than in surveillance monitoring in the security industry, where it is routine for guards – who are tasked with watching cameras for suspicious activity or breaches in security – to miss events because they are playing candy crush on their smartphones, texting friends or even [actually witnessed first-hand] sleeping on the job. But what can be done about this, and what has led to this type of behaviour in the first place?

It’s entirely understandable that one might get bored watching the same scenes from the same cameras every day and night, especially during the quiet hours where there isn’t supposed to be any movement or anything interesting happening, but when something does happen and time is of the essence, is there a way to ensure things are dealt with appropriately?

The short answer is yes. Already we are seeing the introduction of “dark walls” where once there would be a matrix of live camera images from across the site, companies are opting for displaying nothing until an incident is taking place, ensuring the operators are not being bombarded by images that can distract from real incidents. This trend is set to continue as the industry begins to adopt more technologically advanced video analytics systems and once the implementation of Computer Vision works its way into the security industry we will see these systems start making decisions quicker and more accurately than any human ever could.

So if we have solved the issue of incident monitoring and response, this poses a new question – what happens to the traditional “control room”? should this be a despatch hub for sending guards to respond to incidents as and when they occur? With the automation of many of their activities wouldn’t this result in a lot of down-time and underutilized space, and de-motivate those that are trusted to secure your estate?

Instead of this approach of “the security department” as a siloed entity, why not instill the mantra that usually gets discarded as just a sound bite: “Security is everyone’s responsibility”. What about empowering the existing workforce; just like health and safety and first aid are responsibilities shared amongst those trained and willing, why not employ the same tactic with security? Especially as these systems become more sophisticated and are able to take the strain of the majority of the surveillance activities of “regular guards”?

It might seem a radical suggestion for the industry, but as the skillset required for the newer systems that are being implemented change, so does the ideal candidate for the job, and with trained security guards potentially “dormant” in every department of a business what better deterrent for those who wish to do harm?