Amidst growing public safety and security concerns across the nation and internationally, the creation of a shared Safe City software platform, including an integrated video database has become more critical for law enforcement agencies and their local, regional, and national partners. Sharing video data across multiple stakeholders can seem a daunting task, especially in real-time. While it requires extensive cooperation and coordination across many departments, the benefits of having this capability far surpass the effort needed to accomplish this. Successful video sharing techniques facilitate transformational interoperability among multiple independent organizations that require close coordination for incident management related to public safety for both daily and special event operations.
One Unification Platform Among Many Players
A big piece of shared database efficiency and success is knowing all of the key stakeholders and ensuring that each is aware of and involved in the security process. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s Word Trade Center (WTC) illustrates how unique this challenge can be. Housing numerous public agencies and private corporations, the nine-structure, 16-acre campus involves a number of security challenges around mass transit, retail, vehicle screening, high-rise buildings, and public spaces. Among the many security stakeholders include local police and fire departments, property managers, the site leaseholders, and WTC Construction.
On top of that, each of the nine properties has the discretion to employ different manufacturers for their video management, access control, building management, fire alarms, and communications platforms. With so many moving parts, a single platform that offers a unified command and control system and data correlation across all the disparate systems is imperative to both monitoring and responding to safety and security situations. At WTC, a single platform integrates multiple subsystems, sensors, and devices into a single user interface. A shared video surveillance database allows personnel to focus on the developing situations through one interface instead of individually operating many applications to do the same task, thereby allowing pertinent footage to be quickly spotted and critical response actions to be executed accordingly.
Improved Response Times
The amount of time and effort it takes for security operators to look at numerous video screens, gather additional data, and contact multiple and disparate sites for real-time updates certainly add complexity and potential for human error. Having a simple-to-use, integrated interface for operators and decision makers helps manage and respond to actual threats more effectively and efficiently.
Unifying multiple agencies with disparate technologies creates both a common operating picture and enhanced interoperability among multi-jurisdictional partners. The result is a fully functioning video database that collects and correlates information to present “intelligent” views to operators who can manage all incidents within the region. For example, the Joint Transportation Management Center (JTMC) in New York City, the largest transportation hub in North America, has a platform that covers 120 miles of the state arterial system and incorporates thousands of sensors, including cameras, detectors, signs, and other subsystems. The mission is focused on around-the-clock coordination and communication to manage transportation incidents and reduce congestion on some of the busiest expressways in the world. Reliable, streamlined methods to detect and respond to incidents are key to keeping operations running smoothly to support hundreds of thousands of daily commuters.
Long-Term Value for Organizations
While video databases are often implemented by cities for one-time events, such as the Boston Marathon, Super Bowl, and Baltimore Grand Prix, many cities see the long-term value of integrating a shared video system and extending the use of video surveillance databases into a year-round tool for maintaining business continuity and public safety.
Three years ago the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) transitioned from approximately 700 analog cameras to upwards of 10,000 digital cameras. MBTA was able to integrate their existing legacy security systems into a centralized command and control strategy for its security operations, saving money by leveraging price points from different security vendors.
In particular, the video system helps the city of Boston with video surveillance during the Boston Marathon. Following the 2013 Boston Marathon attack, enhanced inter-agency video coverage and integration became a top priority for the 2014 event. MassDOT/MBTA and key local/state partners embarked on a challenging project to deploy and integrate cameras using a single software platform that can identify and map relevant camera coverage along the marathon route. Stakeholders worked with MassDOT/MBTA to integrate cameras from multiple vendors and networks. MBTA’s platform was used as a video user-interface and was accessible from more than 10 command and control centers. Cameras and fields of views were mapped and labeled in Google Earth, and a comprehensive video surveillance map was developed and distributed to key agencies and command centers. Today, the City of Boston leverages the technology in everyday use for improved transportation, traffic management, and situational awareness.
Elevated Situational Awareness
Mobility is more important now than ever. A video surveillance database should be fully enabled for mobile users. Decision makers from either a single organization or from multiple entities can collaborate in real-time to share time-sensitive, actionable information, both with incident managers and incident responders, via mobile devices.
Innovative video surveillance databases provide the ability to manage situations in real-time. First responders, supervisors, IT staff and senior staff with authorized credentials can access the video dashboard from anywhere via mobile device (tablet, cell phone) for enhanced situational awareness.
After implementing a shared video database, Bank Aljazira (BAJ), a leading financial institution in Saudi Arabia, was able to reduce risk and enforce standards across its security operations. With financial industry institutions facing increasingly sophisticated threats directed at bank assets and brand integrity. BAJ’s security team sought to reduce risk and ensure compliance with recently strengthened Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) security regulations. BAJ adopted a new video database to help implement rigorous corporate standard operating procedures across all its facilities, including ATMs, cash centers, branches and corporate buildings. By combining all of the systems into a single user interface, the shared video solution facilitated greater situational awareness and resolution of incidents according to BAJ-configured protocols, in each case generating a time-stamped audit trail.
Conclusion
When considering security options and solutions, a unified video surveillance database is a force multiplier, especially for organizations with a large physical footprint. A shared solution pulls all of the video data and presents it in a simple dashboard that is easy for various organizations to access and monitor. The software can be programmed to help identify and present situations for evaluation by the command center operator so that situations can be resolved accurately and efficiently in real-time. Furthermore, through integrating big data analytics tools, social media and other intelligence inputs combined with video data, organizations can correlate internal assets with external threats to increase situational awareness and to mitigate risk. When implemented correctly, a shared video database can lead to increased connectivity, better inter-agency communication, faster response times, and an overall increase in efficiency and risk mitigation.
About the Author: James Chong is the Founder and CEO of Vidsys, one of the leading PSIM, CSIM solutions provider in the world.
