In the first scenario, a gunman approached the campus via the authorized visitor area and confronted the security guard at the visitor entrance. The suspect confronted the guard with a hand gun and forced his way into the campus.

For this scenario I observed from the event headquarters and got a chance to observe what the event looked like from a dispatcher’s point of view. Watching how the security guards at the campus used the technology, followed SOPs and interacted with the dispatchers was very enlightening.

From that experience, I developed the Top 7 Design Considerations for using security technology to improve response to a disaster event.

1. Common video. Boy, would it be nice if all dispatchers responding to an event could have video! In this drill, the dispatchers were on-site and had full access to the video management system the security guards were using. Watching the dispatchers use the video management system (and NEED the video management system) to gain situational awareness was extremely revealing. I don’t know how they could do their job without those video streams. I take my hat off to all dispatchers that do their jobs blind!

2. Video quality is king. At our post we had digital video coming off a digital system that was almost 10 years old. The system was configured at 7.5 fps and CIF resolution. Kind of your typical system. Unfortunately, in a disaster scenario this video is not sufficient. The resolution pixilated when we tried to enlarge, the skipped frames were distracting and we had very limited situational awareness. 4CIF, 15fps would have been much better!

3. Are you hearing impaired? If you are, I have a much better appreciation of your world. Watching a crisis unfold in front of you, without any sound makes you appreciate how someone who can’t hear views the world. In the past, I have avoided deploying audio in client systems because of the legal concerns of eavesdropping. After this experience, I will try to find a way to comply with the eavesdropping laws and use integrated audio channels in the IP cameras of today (check out axis.com). If you are wondering what the electronic surveillance laws are in your area visit electronic surveillance laws.

4. Flexibility. Trying to design a system around a set of pre-defined rules really doesn’t work. A system needs to be fluid, to easily call up information that a dispatcher needs at any moment. Any set of rules we define are just a guess. Don’t get me wrong, we can do some of that (such as when an intercom button is pushed a camera view is activated) but just as important, we need to have a easy to use system that is flexible and adaptable to real-life scenarios.

5. Viewing real estate. The more the better. The observation command center had 4, 27-inch monitors. It sounds like a lot, but I was surprised at how quickly we ran out of viewing space. The more viewing space you can get, the more effective your system will be.

6. Graphic maps. In our system design we had graphic maps built for all the locations. The maps were a great tool to quickly see any camera in the area and launch video. The one down side was the size of the maps. The maps (as with most systems) were simple jpeg images that were imported into the Video Management System and alarm monitoring software from Lenel. A better tool that allows vectoring of maps and scaling of the images is a product from GIS Dynamics. If you haven’t seen that product, you need to check it out. It would have been a great help in navigating the system.

7. Get a Surveillance Robot. Okay. I know what you are thinking…What type of security geek am I? But you really need one of these. Check out mobilerobots.com. There are tons of these products hitting the market and after feeling first hand how helpless you become when you cannot see what is happening, trust me, these things are worth the investment. Imagine the images of the security robot patrolling your campus, sending video streams to your video management system. I’m telling you, it’s the future.

I had many take-a-ways from the event, but these were the main ones. We are going to start incorporating these ideas into our future system designs. If you have been through one of these drills and have some ideas I would sure love to hear them. Any ideas at how we can get better at what we do are always welcome. If you have some, post them here so we can all improve.