SubscribeBy Roni Kass Seeds of insanity seem to have cropped up in society and have become a growing challenge for school security. We appear to be entering an era cursed by school shootings, that includes the recent tragedy at Virginia Tech a few months ago.
In a recent school security summit, issues of school safety were discussed. There was a common consensus that communication and better information is required, as well as planning, procedures, training, and regular drills. It is known that in most school shootings the attackers declare to friends or post on the Internet their plans. Very often, they case the property as they devise their plan or go as far as to do dry rehearsals and role playing days prior to the attack as with the Columbine shootings in 1999 where the attackers made videos using mockup guns in the unmonitored areas. When this pre-attack behavior can be detected and acted upon by school security, it provides a proactive opportunity to thwart an attack.
Whether parochial or public, primary, elementary, secondary, or post secondary, it makes no difference, the security planning is much the same and can be summed up in the four Ds of physical security: deter, detect, defend, and defeat.
Intelligent Video Solutions Protecting Schools And Students
Intelligent video watches large amounts of security surveillance from CCTV security cameras. The importance of this is that schools need robust detection, hassle free installation and easy use features that avoid extensive learning curves, computer modifications, or ongoing high maintenance that only big budget security installations can afford. Today, there are intelligent video solutions on the market that offer just that.
Deter, Detect, Defend and Defeat
Deter: The presence of a camera alone may be enough to deter much criminal activity and give the impression that the school is not a soft target. However, cameras alone will not suffice as students quickly learn that the cameras are ineffective when not watched.
It is important, for school security to provide sufficient coverage and to demonstrate consistent monitoring. One reason for shortfalls in coverage is that more cameras means more monitors to watch. This is where the technology of intelligent video bridges the gap by providing automated monitoring and detection for all surveillance at every moment.
On-alarm, automatic responses can be sent to additional connected devices in order to provide deterrent actions, such as playing audible warnings, sounding sirens, turning on security lights, locking doors/gates, etc.
In addition, it is not unusual for attackers to place caches of weapons around the campus, do a walk through, or illegally park in a strategic location. Exceptional behavior can be automatically detected 24/7 and reported instantly to the security officer or police.
Detection: As intelligent video has behavioral and scenario detection capabilities, it allows school security to bring to attention certain behaviors that are out of the ordinary or considered odd at particular times of the day.
There are several types of intelligent video detection that can be used simultaneously and each is flexible enough to be applied to a school’s unique threat remediation requirements.
Intruder trespass and tripwire detection allows scenarios to be defined that can tip-off security for various events. Detection can be based on person and/or vehicle, direction of travel, time of day, and if they crossed over a demarcation line.
Because the intrusion detection can be scheduled and designed with directional movement, persons approaching the building can be detected while ignoring others leaving the building. This allows security to be notified to meet any visitors approaching the school, stop fence jumpers, or to detect students shuttling back and forth to their cars at strange times.
An attacker or security threat may enter a school from a place where pedestrian traffic is not normal, such as from a wooded area, overgrown field, construction area, or even from neighboring abandon properties such as in 2006 when a man with a machinegun, seen moments before trespassing in a nearby abandon house, was chased and tackled by a police dog in front of a Syracuse elementary school.
Defense: Intelligent video works over IP networks and allows remote analysis and visual confirmation that provides real time situational awareness. In any critical situation, the element of surprise can place school security at a disadvantage and failure to respond rapidly can lead to escalation.
Using a wireless network, security guards can carry remote visualization units (PDAs) that allow them to see and control the cameras. This provides the security officer the ability to cope with day-to-day security situations while still having detection and alerts delivered to the hand held unit.
This up to the minute information and portable visualization allows security to make decisions on not only how to direct responders to the attacker’s whereabouts but also how to best evacuate and secure persons and property during the crisis. This is important so that students don’t flee to blocked exits, into the path of the attacker or headlong into a booby trap, such as was planned by two students at Green Bay East High School in Wisconsin who sought to spread napalm at the exits and shoot fleeing students.
For large outdoor campuses, autonomous PTZ tracking allows detection handoff and follows the intruder’s movement by mechanically moving the camera and zooming in on the target. Thus, security can see where an attacker is located and what he or she is doing.
In addition, the automatic events of the unit can allow remote commanding of door releases and locking mechanisms as well as automatically playing announcements when a visitor approaches school doors. Thus, if an attacker is identified approaching with guns, the doors can be locked from remote and alarms sounded.
Defeat: The ability to remove the intruder’s possibility of achieving his or her objectives by impeding progress, quarantining the perpetrator, and summoning emergency responders can be critical in saving lives and defeating an attacker. Although the intelligent video provides the ability to deter, detect, and defend, the task of defeating an attacker is a complex. Intelligent video systems can allow locking down or preventing access, which may be sufficient in defeating an intruder. The rest of the burden will fall on security and emergency responders.
Criticism of CCTV systems are overcome in new intelligent video products
In a comprehensive research report in 1999 by Sandia National Laboratories, several of the drawbacks of CCTV were highlighted, including the cost of infrastructure and cameras, coverage per camera, ability to staff video monitoring, handling extreme lighting conditions, inclement weather, complexity of cameras, human observation failing to provide a high level of detection, and the fact recordings may not be useful.
Intelligent video goes beyond the conventional CCTV systems of the past. In a few short years technology marched on while intelligent-video-edge-devices and camera technological advancements overcame these drawbacks.
Intelligent Video Camera Automation Surveillance
Cameras are now inexpensive, IP wireless networks reduced infrastructures costs, intelligent video automation allows unmanned surveillance monitoring and intelligent video vigilance goes beyond human observation capacity. Intelligent video also works in inclement weather and new systems are easy to setup and use.
School security programs can be complex and involve many issues. A complete threat assessment should be done. Topics such as safety, asset protection, and liability risks should be analyzed by an expert.
Sandia National Laboratories, the authors of the US Department of Justice sponsored report “The Appropriate and Effective Use of Security Technologies in U.S. Schools” offers many tips. More and more college campuses are using automated intelligent-video-edge-device technology for automated intelligent-video-edge-device technology protecting their campus protection. A prime example, in Israel Technion College uses ioimage intelligent video ioiboxes for perimeter area and gate security. School security directors are now turning to intelligent video to expand their security capabilities and implement a more robust solution – the realities of today demand it.