Page 48 - Campus Security & Life Safety, March/April 2019

“The possibilities are endless and the common ground is video analytics.”
enabling increased public safety and accelerated security response, while also driving operational productivity and business perfor- mance for on-campus retailers, healthcare institutions, stadiums, mass event venues and more.
Video Content Analytics 101
Campuses are home to thousands of security cameras—these are installed on pedestrian pathways, main roads, around the perimeter of campus buildings and inside them and throughout parking lots. These sensors are used to surveil diverse spaces, from dormitories to classrooms, stores, stadiums, theaters, and both indoor and out- door venues.
Security surveillance is designed to help campuses increase situa- tional awareness, but—even with state-of-the-art cameras spread throughout the grounds—the challenges of reviewing and actively monitoring video are overwhelming. In the aftermath of an event, reviewing video across multiple cameras and recordings is both work intensive and inefficient for security. While the evidence extracted is valuable, dedicating the time and manpower to comprehensively comb through video is not always justifiable. Real-time manual mon- itoring of video feeds often is equally ineffective: Even the most atten- tive operators can be easily distracted or misinterpret a critical event.
To streamline the review of video and response to threats, video content analytics leverages machine learning to analyze video, extract objects that appear, identify and classify them and then index them as metadata. This metadata can be searched to pinpoint specific people or objects of interest or leveraged to configure alerts based on predefined rules. Investigators looking for a suspect wearing red can isolate all appearances of people wearing red in video, across all cameras and also trigger calls to action any time a person wearing red is detected in real- time in certain areas. Beyond this, by analyzing the aggregated data from long-term video recordings across cameras, law enforcement offi- cers can uncover trends and define a benchmark for typical behaviors, so that unusual and suspicious activity is easier to identify.
Attaining Campus-wide Situational Awareness
The ability to configure real-time alerts can increase security’s aware- ness of on-campus activity and accelerate their response to threats. As soon as an alert is triggered, law enforcement can immediately assess the activity and determine whether something malicious is afoot. By bringing the most relevant details to the forefront, video content analytics alerts keep security focused and responsive.
While sometimes innocuous, oftentimes loitering can indicate a potential threat. For instance, school security might want to be noti- fied of people or cars dwelling in a campus parking lot after hours, suggesting potential criminal activity. Video analytics can also help streamline daily school activities that require monitoring, such as student pick up and drop off—enabling security to take note of any excessive dwelling or unrecognized vehicles in the parking lot. Dur- ing the school day, security can be alerted to outdoor movement dur- ing class time and quickly understand whether students are cutting class or whether interlopers are entering the campus. As active shoot- er situations continue to terrorize universities and day schools, the ability to immediately detect anomalous activity, attain situational awareness and respond to threats is critical.
Dwelling detection is also crucial for preventing on-campus theft. Campus safety experts note that loitering around dorm entryways, bike racks and facilities that store valuable equipment can indicate intent to commit a crime. With dwelling alerts for these areas, police can be quickly mobilized to deter or proactively respond to thievery.
Beyond dwelling, video analytics can be used to alert to overcrowd-
ing and traffic bottlenecks to mitigate the risk of violence erupting or the outbreak of a fight. On college campuses, where political gatherings can spark violence, police can closely track activity and react to indica- tions of escalating risk.
Security surveillance is used across campuses, but with the addi- tion of artificial intelligence and data-driven video analytics and real- time alerting capabilities, security can enhance situational awareness, detect unusual and excessive dwelling and accelerate responses to emergencies, threats and suspicious behavior.
Accelerating On-Campus Investigations
and Security Response
On-campus crime is not always proactively preventable. In the after- math of an incident, the primary concern is accelerating the post event investigation. Law enforcement must be able to quickly under- stand what occurred, identify suspects and then locate them to miti- gate future threats and crimes.
Video content analytics enables campus law enforcement to accel- erate investigations, enabling them to quickly and easily understand the event and extract evidence. When investigators have a suspect, they can search video based on known features of the individual, such as gender, clothing color, height—even the direction in which the suspect escaped.
In cases where suspect details are unavailable, investigators can leverage extracted metadata to understand quickly what occurred based on objects and people recorded in the video. Package theft, which is a common occurrence in dorm settings, can be easily inves- tigated by isolating which people accepted package deliveries and by tracking suspects and packages’ movements throughout the dorm. Even when crime occurs over the weekend or at night, the operator can rapidly review hours of footage, filtering based on known criteria, to discover when the crime occurred, collect evidence and pinpoint suspects. This is equally effective when campuses must investigate accidents, vandalism or damages to school property, personal belong- ings or on-site vehicles.
Driving Operational Efficiency Across Campus
Over time, when video metadata is extracted, aggregated and visual- ized, it becomes a powerful, actionable asset for universities and K-12
advanced technology
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campuslifesecurity.com | March/April 2019