Cramming for Security
Schools can learn to benefit from intelligent video
SEEDS of insanity have cropped up in society and are becoming a growing challenge for school security. The recent rash of school shootings, including the recent tragedy at Virginia Tech, signal an ominous trend.
In a recent school security summit, school safety issues were discussed. There was a consensus that communication and better information is required, as well as planning, procedures, training and regular drills. It is known in most school shootings, attackers tell friends or post their plans on the Internet. Often, they case the property while devising a plan. Some 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 mock-up guns in unmonitored areas. When this pre-attack behavior can be detected and acted upon by school security, it provides a proactive opportunity to foil a possible tragedy.
No matter the type of educational institution, security planning is much the same and can be summed up in with deter, detect, defend and defeat.
Intelligent video watches large amounts of security surveillance from CCTV cameras. Schools need robust detection, hassle-free installation and features that avoid extensive learning curves, computer modifications or ongoing high maintenance that only big-budget security installations can afford. Intelligent video technology offers solutions to help improve school security.
Deter
The presence of a camera may be enough to deter criminal activity and give an impression the school is not a soft target. But cameras alone will not suffice, as students quickly learn 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 more cameras mean more monitors to watch. Intelligent video bridges the gap by providing automated monitoring and detection for all surveillance cameras constantly.
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 or locking doors/gates.
In addition, it is not unusual for attackers to store weapons around a campus, do a walk through or illegally park in a strategic location. Exceptional behavior can be automatically detected 24/7 and reported instantly to a security officer or police.
Detection
As intelligent video has behavioral and scenario detection capabilities, it allows school security officials to bring attention to 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. Each kind 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 security officers for various events. Detection can be based on a person and/or vehicle, direction of travel, time of day or if someone crossed over a demarcation line.
Because intrusion detection can be scheduled and designed with directional movement, subjects approaching a building can be detected while ignoring others leaving. This notifies officials to meet any visitors approaching the school, stop fence jumpers or detect students shuttling back and forth to cars at strange times.
An attacker or security threat may enter a school from a place where pedestrian traffic is not normal, such as a wooded area, overgrown field, construction area or even from neighboring abandoned properties. In 2006, a man with a machine gun, seen moments before trespassing in a nearby abandoned house, was chased and tackled by a police dog in front of a Syracuse, N.Y., elementary school.
Defense
Intelligent video works over IP networks and allows remote analysis and visual confirmation, providing real-time situational awareness. In any critical situation, the element of surprise can place school security at a disadvantage, and failure to respond can be damaging.
Using a wireless network, security guards can carry PDAs that allow them to see and control cameras. This provides the security officer the ability to cope with day-to-day security situations while still having detection and alerts delivered to a handheld unit.
Up-to-the-minute information and portable visualization allow security personnel to make decisions not only on how to direct responders to the attacker’s whereabouts, but also how to evacuate and secure persons and property during a crisis. This is important so students don’t flee to blocked exits, into the path of the attacker or headlong into a trap. Two students at Green Bay East High School in Wisconsin planned to spread napalm at the exits and shoot fleeing students.
For large, outdoor campuses, autonomous PTZ tracking allows hands-off detection and follows an intruder’s movement by mechanically moving the camera and zooming in on the target. Security can see where an attacker is located and what they are doing.
In addition, 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. If an attacker is identified approaching with guns, the doors can be locked remotely and alarms sounded.
Defeat
Impeding the progress of and quarantining the perpetrator, and summoning emergency responders, can be critical in saving lives and defeating an attacker. Although intelligent video provides the ability to deter, detect and defend, the task of defeating an attacker is complex. Intelligent video systems can allow lock down or prevent access, which may be sufficient in defeating an intruder. The remaining burden will fall on the shoulders of security and emergency responders.
In a comprehensive research report by Sandia National Laboratories in 1999, several CCTV drawbacks 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 conventional CCTV. In a few short years, technology marched on while intelligent video edge devices and cameras overcame previous disadvantages.
Now that cameras are inexpensive and IP wireless networks have reduced infrastructure costs, intelligent video automation allows unmanned surveillance monitoring and intelligent video vigilance 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. Complete threat assessments should be done. Topics such as safety, asset protection and liability risks should be analyzed by an expert.
Sandia National Laboratories, the author of the 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 to protect schools. School security directors are now turning to intelligent video to expand security capabilities and implement a more robust solution—the realities of today demand it.