Canadian Security recently hosted a roundtable discussion with industry leaders to discuss some of the latest trends in technologies taking place within the security industry.
Sponsored by GardaWorld Security Systems, the roundtable was comprised of Doug Sales, Senior Director, Commercial Sales, GardaWorld Security Systems; Chris Strong, Senior Director, MSU (Mobile Surveillance Units), GardaWorld; Nathan Drew, National Sales Manager, Axis Communications Canada; and Scott Young, National Vice- President, GardaWorld Security Systems.
Members of the roundtable discussed topics such as how technology is enabling the end user to improve their security operations and situational awareness; how technology enables the user to address operations beyond risk and security measures; how technology delivery models have changed the way companies budget for and manage security systems; addressing pain points; the evolution of security training; and the future of hybrid security solutions.
Optimizing operations
Young started the roundtable discussion by discussing how clients are looking to the latest technologies, including AI, to help manage man hours.
“More and more clients are asking for implementation of technology to reduce man hours, not to eliminate guard hours necessarily, but to augment the managed security team,” he said. “What’s exciting for us is that it’s in-house artificial intelligence that’s being built by Garda’s IT department in Montreal. We’re able to build custom AIs to our client solutions to fill any gaps that might exist.
We have had many cases now where we can implement technology and reduce guard hours to maximize the efficiency of the security program” Drew added that manufacturers need to maintain their leadership in the marketplace by offering their clients the latest innovative technologies.
“We want to make sure that everything that we’re coming up with is extremely innovative. Being the company that created the IP camera back in 1996, we want to ensure that we are offering to not only our integrator partners like GardaWorld, but to the end users, the best product that they can get to market,” he said.
One technology gaining popularity is GardaWorld’s mobile surveillance units (MSUs), which utilize the latest in AI technology and are equipped with Axis cameras, as well as its own in-house analytic engines.
“We’re developing analytics to add to what Axis is doing,” Strong said. “Where they’ve gone and done crossline detection or people detection, we’re adding to that with the flexibility that we get from an Axis camera. We can do vehicle recognition; logos on vehicles; licence plate recognition.
We can make sure the seal is on the back of trucks. So, we’re using that to enhance the user experience, not just relying on our partners.”
Beyond traditional security
The panel was asked how today’s technology enables the user to address operations beyond risk and security measures.
Young started off the discussion by stating that health and safety policy enforcement is a natural extension of the services that GardaWorld provides. He said with the use of today’s cameras combined with available access and analytics, companies like his can now assist with things like PPE compliance on a construction site, for example.
“It can tell when someone is wearing a vest, if someone is wearing a hard hat, especially on a construction site where this is a health and safety requirement,” he said. “If someone’s not wearing proper PPE, that alert gets sent to the security operations centre or to a guard cell phone, they can then respond and enforce the PPE policy.”
Axis is currently in the process of developing chipsets, optimizing what the company can do at the edge of the camera.
“Taking that information and processing it at the edge is becoming more and more prevalent,” Drew said.
“The more that you can do at the edge, the less space you need on a server, the less transmission you need. We’re taking those things like PPE analytics and putting them on the camera, so all the processing is done there instead of a server. For us, it is about building beyond security.”
Services like GardaWorld’s MSU deployment allow for security services to be offered in more remote areas where people didn’t traditionally have an option for placement of security cameras for security or safety purposes.
“They were too far out of reach from a metropolitan area. The compounds would be too large for cabling and infrastructure to be put in place to put in cameras for monitoring,” Sales explains.
“Now with a portable solution that is ‘Canadianized’ to our harsh environment, places that couldn’t be protected or monitored, now can be.”
One example of where MSUs are having a major impact is in large airport parking lots, where vehicles are often the targets of thieves.
“A lot of vehicles were being stolen from a Class 1 airport in Western Canada in the outskirts of these surface lots where they can’t get power, they can’t get data. It was just target-rich environment for the thieves. So, we deployed last summer a pilot of two MSUs into very targeted service lots, and we saw dramatic reduction in theft of vehicle and catalytic converter theft and incidents happening in that specific lot,” Young explained.
He added that airport management was so impressed by the results that they added more than 10 MSUs across all of their service lots.
“We’ve seen a 92-per-cent reduction in incidents happening in the parking lots there in the first six months of 2024 compared to the last six months of 2023 and law enforcement has arrested the top 5 vehicle theft criminals in the area thanks to our footage. The MSUs completely solved the problem” Young said.
Delivery models
When asked if technology delivery models (SaaS, cloud) have changed the way security companies budget for and manage security systems, Drew said that Axis has seen a need from its customers to come out with new cloud offerings.
“This year we’ve released Axis’ first cloud product. It’s not fully released until the end of this year, but we came up with Axis Pro at ISC West this year,” he said. Drew added that it is important to understand what the end user needs and their cloud expectations.
“Some people want redundant storage in the cloud. Some people want full storage in the cloud. What I think it is going to end up being is a lot of hybrid workplaces. You’re going to see a lot of on-prem still, but you’re also going to see redundant storage in the cloud, maybe storage on an SD card on site, going full cloud. I think for the most part, we’re going to see a hybrid,” he said.
Pain points
One of the pain points for security professionals discussed during the roundtable was managing drones as part of a solution for the end user. Young said that drone technologies are improving, particularly the battery life of the units. Now that there is the option to have remote pilots, they are becoming a more reasonably priced solution.
“It wasn’t really cost effective to have one security guard or SOC operator flying the drone 24/7. But with automated flights and analytics on edge in the camera on the drone, you can have remote pilots managing multiple flight paths across anywhere in Canada,” he said. “The ROI discussion becomes a lot more interesting when you’ve got one operator managing multiple different drones. We’re also seeing requests for anti-drone technology.”
Another technology discussed that is a hot topic for debate in many circles is facial recognition. Young says this solution is getting deployed more often now at post-secondary universities when there is protest activity.
“A lot of the protestors are not even students, they’re professional agitators. We want to know when those people come on site as quickly as possible,” he said. “It’s difficult to impossible to expect the security guards to memorize the faces of all these people that have had interactions with the past. The cameras can do that for them.”
Another way technology is assisting security professionals is through anti-loitering solutions for places like retail shopping centres.
“We’ve got opportunity now to deploy technologies – talk-down speakers, multiple cameras and active monitoring – so that you know your guard isn’t walking into that,” Sales said.
Body-worn cameras for security professionals was also discussed as potential solution for end-users.
“We’ve started to deploy these more to our officers across the country, and in some pilot cases where we’re having a lot of interactions with individuals looking to interact in a negative way with security, we’ve seen a 40-per-cent reduction in incidents of assault against security officers after deployment of body cams,” Young said.
When it comes to gunshot detection, a number of hybrid solutions are being utilized for cost effectiveness and are able to do a number of things like behavior detection, hostile language detection. “We’re seeing a lot of deployment of that in schools and institutions where, traditionally, gunshot detection was for malls,” Sales said.
Strong added that GardaWorld is looking at implementing technology where they can notice if somebody has a gun or a knife in their hand.
“Right now, we’re doing it just with pistols and riflesto try to be proactive and not wait for the gunshot but determine that somebody has something in their hand that would cause an alert for the operator,” he said.
Evolution of training
When it comes to offering the latest technologies to security professionals, it is not effective if the guards aren’t trained to use the technology properly, Young said.
“You need to train the security guards on utilizing the technology as best as possible,” he said. “A lot of end users also have these complex, very sophisticated video management systems, and they’re not using them to their full capability. So, that comes down to integrator training of the end users in the final commissioning so that they’re getting what they’re paying for, and they’re optimizing the utilization of their system.
Additionally, and particular at GardaWorld, we can use our Integrator expertise to train the guards and SOC Operators utilizing the system.” Axis offers its clients a two-day course called, “Axis Certified Professional,” to assist with ensuring their customers have the knowledge necessary to utilize their technologies effectively.
“We encourage all of our integrators to do it,” Drew said. “We encourage end users to take it as well. It’s something that we constantly update. We encourage everybody to take it.”
The future is hybrid
When asked what they think is the future of hybrid security models, Young replied that he sees a lot of interest in the use of MSUs to complement security personnel.
“Instead of having five guards per shift, you can go with three guards per shift and five MSUs. You can realistically get about six MSUs for the cost of one guard, 24/7, so from a situational awareness perspective that’s a lot better bang for your buck,” he said.
While there will always be a need for guard response, Young sees a lot of reductio in manpower taking place, augmented by technology (particularly the MSUs), working together as an integrated security model.
“The benefit is that you have fewer, but better trained, better compensated guards that are augmented by technology,” he said.
“So, instead of paying close to minimum wage, as a lot of sites do across the country, you can pay a premium because you have less billable hours, less cost to clients. You can have better trained guards, better stability, better retention through a more effective, technology-enabled program.”
Source: Canadian Security magazine