Emerging Trends
Jan 1, 2009 12:00 PM, By James R. Black
Technology can address evolving security needs on campus.
The campus security standard of care continues to evolve. Technology plays a more important role than ever before, and manufacturers want their equipment to become the solution of choice at education facilities across the nation. Campus administrators need to know more about these security technologies and how they might fit into a campus security program.
Safe and secure
Three trends are emerging in education security:
- Intelligent video analytics
This technology finally is realizing its promise. For many years, education institutions heard the promises, saw the trade show demonstrations, and in some cases deployed "beta" systems to gauge the security and safety enhancement possibilities of these advanced video systems.
Unfortunately for those early adopters, the promise didn't come close to justifying the hype. Initially, these "military-rooted," processor-heavy applications were designed for government entities not concerned about price, complexity or false-alarm rates. Expensive and difficult-to-maintain systems, combined with well-publicized test failures, seemed to do more harm than good and created an unfortunate perception in the industry about the viability of video analytics.
But the industry has undergone a virtual makeover. Competition among a number of emerging manufacturers, combined with maturing technology, has resulted in significantly lower prices. Legacy manufacturers have applied the lessons learned over a number of product generations to improve the accuracy and functionality of their products. Systems now offer more "a la carte" options to suit a particular application, and schools no longer are forced into a bundled suite of detection sets at a fixed cost.
Analytics now can be deployed using either a centralized or decentralized model — whichever is appropriate for the application and resources. Cameras from a number of manufacturers now can be ordered with specific analytic features or a combination of features built in directly. Cameras often are loaded with an entire suite of password-activated features so that detection features can be upgraded remotely via software.
Systems now have advanced and easier-to-use learning modes and masking features to facilitate better system tuning. This reduces nuisance and false alarms to a manageable level. Analytics systems that not long ago cost $3,000 to $5,000 per camera while using intense server-processing resources now cost a few hundred dollars per camera or less and can include many essential features.
The University of Southern California (USC), for example, has deployed the latest-generation intelligent video analytics to improve incident detection, assessment and response. The campus is using video analytics to extend the reach of public safety staff in areas where undesired activities might occur.
- Mass notification
Keeping students, staff, faculty and parents informed in a crisis and maintaining a sense of order is high on everyone's list of priorities. Here again, the industry push for solutions has overshadowed some of the reality and limitations of some technology-interdependent applications. E-mail and text messaging are so ingrained in our daily lives that their application as universal saviors in a crisis seems on its face to be sound judgment.
Real-world realities, however, have shown us that for larger institutions at least, there are fundamental flaws in an approach relying on only one or two notification technologies. The logistics of maintaining massive lists of high-turnover populations has proven to be a bigger challenge than anticipated. Sending tens of thousands of e-mails or text messages at once has overwhelmed systems and caused embarrassing delays. In extreme cases, alerts have been received many hours after an incident has concluded and media reports have been disseminated. Fundamental misperceptions about the capabilities of certain systems occur regularly and sometimes result in an incomplete emergency-notification strategy.
The good news is campuses are re-evaluating their notification systems and replacing insufficient systems with more robust and flexible services. New purchasers of notification systems should take advantage of the lessons learned by early adopters. The clear trend is to focus on a multi-mode system strategy that incorporates high-tech, low-tech and no-tech solutions into a notification plan. Text messaging still remains an important component of the alert program, but comprehensive solutions also include radio, television, audio paging, instant messaging, phone calls, digital message boards, improved and continual awareness training, and even old-fashioned emergency lights and sirens.
One emerging technology that might ease the performance problems associated with cell-phone messaging is cellular broadcasting. Instead of needing to acquire and maintain massive user lists, cellular broadcasting allows for transmitting a message simultaneously to anyone near a particular cell tower. This technology greatly reduces drain on network resources and could boost performance and system effectiveness significantly.
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