Tuesday, September 26, 2006

In an article in SDM Magazine they discuss the fact that Video Alarm Verification is becoming important to verify that a crime is occurring. It's especially important in those cities where police will respond only to verified alarms.

As more municipalities across the United States report that police will not to respond to an alarm signal unless an intrusion has been verified, a new opportunity that has arisen for central station alarm monitoring companies is video alarm verification. One municipality that has enacted such a policy is Las Vegas, although police there still will respond to all panic alarms.

In response to the local ordinance, Las Vegas-based central station alarm company A-1 Security Ltd. has been offering video verification to its customers at a charge of about $100 per month, which also may include conventional alarm monitoring. When an account subscribing to the video verification service experiences an alarm, a video image of the site is automatically sent to the central station, along with the alarm signal. By viewing the associated video signal, central station operators can confirm whether an intruder is present and, if appropriate, dispatch the police, advising them that the intrusion has been verified. “All of our operators have knowledge of the system and can handle an alarm,” notes Bud Wulforst, president of A-1, adding that operators often can help police by providing descriptions of the perpetrators. Police also tend to respond more promptly when they know an intrusion has been verified, he says. Story



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Monday, September 11, 2006

Workplace Crime Costs Businesses Big

In an article by The Business Journal of Jacsonville you can see just how bad business crime is. Business owners will protect their home with a security system yet they fail to protect there livelihood. A video security system is invaluable to businesses in protecting from becoming a victim.

Crime cost businesses in the Jacksonville area more than $1.8 billion last year, a figure more than double the cost of residential crime in the area in the same period.
A study conducted by the University of Florida's Bureau of Economic and Business Research found crime in 2004 cost Florida businesses $27.4 billion.

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Friday, September 01, 2006

Video Verification Can Be a Silver Bullet

In an article I recently came across on Security Info Watch, Video Verification is Not a Silver Bullet, Rich Anderson poses the problem - "Why cameras don’t get false alarms out of the picture?" The two main reasons that it may not be perfect are not having adequate video coverage and whether the person found in the facility is supposed to be there or not (i.e. - night janitor, etc.).

The point where video verification can be a Silver Bullet is if complete coverage can be provided. This can be done by having outside perimeter coverage of all points of entry. Usually, on a small facility this can be done fairly easily. Although, for larger facilities it may be more costly, it can be accomplished as well.

Mr. Anderson states, for alarm verification, video can help particularly in small facilities like retail or tenant offices where 100% coverage can be achieved with relatively few cameras. “We have a lot of high-end customers in Manhattan. They see the value. It also protects my response people by letting them know they are walking into a potential problem,” said Craig Decher, vice president of DGA Security Systems in New York.

With the right DVR you can view the activity on the internet and go back the start of recording to see that an intruder has actually entered the property. So, with the right equipment Video Verification is the right solution and the prices are not out of reach of most businesses.


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