Utility Value of COM-SUR™ for Educational Institutions

1. Terrorism and Other Issues: Schools and other educational institutions constantly face threats of terrorism, shootouts, and other issues such as molestation, rape, violence, corporal punishment, and so on. Perpetrators often conduct pre-operational surveillance of the target area, making it important to detect suspicious activity during this phase to prevent an incident.
2. Insider Threats: Schools and other educational institutions have to deal with insider threats from disgruntled employees or even unwitting staff who fail to follow proper security and safety measures.

The pandemic severely impacted schools and other educational institutions worldwide. Several schools and other educational institutions had to be temporarily closed. Guidelines were issued to prevent the spread of COVID-19, but outbreaks still occurred.

Most schools and other educational institutions have video surveillance covering the following areas:

• Entrances and exits (gates)
• Parking lots
• Reception
• Classrooms
• Corridors and elevator lobbies
• Playgrounds
• Libraries
  Labs
• Cafeterias
• Gymnasiums
• Other critical areas that house expensive equipment and other public access areas deemed important

Several schools and other educational institutions have a dedicated control room with operators, set up for live monitoring of CCTV cameras. However, live monitoring comes with its own set of challenges of video blindness, poor attention span, boredom, operator bias, false alerts, and so on.

Moreover, these cameras continuously capture and record humungous amounts of video data. It therefore becomes a daunting task for the operators to review and analyse this data whenever the need arises. Thus, it may be noted that benefits from video surveillance systems can accrue only when they are used optimally, suggestions for which are enumerated further on, in this document.

Compliance - General

Conformity or compliance in any organization means adherence to laws and/or rules and regulations, various standards, as well as data storage and security requirements as laid down by government bodies, governing bodies of the respective industry, or the management of the organization. When an organization complies with the requirements mandated by government and/or governing bodies, then it is termed as ‘regulatory compliance’ which enables the organization to run in a legal and safe manner.

Compliance - Audits

Several organizations carry out compliance audits on a regular basis to avoid the potential consequences of non-compliance. A compliance audit examines how well an organization adheres to compliance requirements. Some organizations use video surveillance to monitor compliance issues and audit recorded CCTV video footage from time to time for investigating and preventing compliance issues. Auditing CCTV provides actionable insights on the level of compliance within the organization.

In the wake of the Christchurch shooting incident, several high-profile places of worship considered deploying gun detection technology. However, there are concerns about its efficacy, since it may not be able to detect all types of weapons, or the perpetrator could still create damage before being detected. Similarly, automated systems like video analytics, AI/ML can only detect what they have been programmed for. What about the rest? Again, these technologies are prone to triggering huge amounts of false alarms. Also, since the permutation combinations of exceptions can be vast and varied, it becomes almost impossible to automate every kind of exception. Facial recognition technology also raises ethical and privacy concerns, and has been found to produce inaccurate results, especially for certain ethnic groups. Therefore, experts suggest that while automated technologies will continue to grow, human intervention and intelligence will still be necessary to verify alerts and ensure their efficacy.

While it is not being suggested that optimal usage of video surveillance can cure all issues, several issues of the following kind can be addressed by doing just a little 'more' with respect to making the optimal use of video surveillance systems:

• Student abuse issues
• Corporal punishments
• Health and safety issues
• Unauthorized/unlawful activities/visitors
• Intrusions, especially by wild animals
• Drugs/liquor consumption in the premises
• Behavioural issues of students /parents /teachers/non-teaching staff
• Suicide attempts
• Recces/suspicious movements/activities
• Potential hazards
• Staff negligence
• Insider job/security lapses
• Fraud/loss/corruption/theft of various kinds
• Human rights violations
• Housekeeping issues
• Cheating during examinations
• Camera/recorder malfunctions

So, what is the ‘more’ that needs to be done?

Audit CCTV Video Footage Daily as a Standard Operating Procedure

‘Auditing’ means 'seeing' what the cameras 'saw'. Auditing of CCTV footage should be done daily (continuous investigation) to identify potential issues and threats. Auditing is a dedicated and systematic process that helps address challenges related to live monitoring and alert-based systems. Auditing helps in evaluating analyzing incidents to improve existing policies, procedures, and processes. Concerned personnel should be trained to become CCTV video footage auditors, and the audit teams should be rotated to avoid complacency/collusion. Daily auditing of CCTV footage can also help in adhering to the principles of Kaizen and TQM for business improvement.

Document Audit Findings/Incidents

Audit findings/incidents should be documented in a standardized template to find the root cause to prevent future recurrences. Historical data of such findings/incidents can reveal patterns that can help take better informed corrective and preventive action. If all schools and other educational institutions report incidents in a standardized template, relevant authorities can derive business intelligence from the data and take action for the collective benefit of the educational sector

Ensure Disaster Recovery of CCTV Video Footage – Like a ‘Blackbox’

CCTV video footage must be stored at multiple locations in order to ensure that even if the recorder is stolen, destroyed or tampered with the data is never lost. Further, any backed-up data must easily be searchable and retrievable; else, it is going to be a nightmare finding the relevant video.

Display Dynamic Information at Relevant Places

Document and display details of information that is dynamic in nature in relevant areas. For example:

1. List of authorized security guards (with their relevant details).
2. Students going on a picnic. Along with their details, information about whether some students have special dietary needs can also be included. Also, details about teachers and other staff accompanying them to the picnic.

Use a Powerful New Signage

"WE CHECK CCTV VIDEO FOOTAGE EVERYDAY".

One size, one color, one powerful message. Across the nation.

Organizations with multiple locations struggle with centralized video surveillance due to infrastructure cost, internet bandwidth, and operator limitations. De-centralized surveillance offers higher accountability at each location and better situational awareness, leading to more chances of discovering exceptions.