Security Director News Top Stories

Surveillance with privacy in mind

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:00:00 CDT

BROOKLINE, Mass.—When DHS, in 2008, made money available to first responders here looking to plan for any sort of disaster that might lead to an evacuation of nearby Boston, they jumped on it, installing a surveillance system to monitor major throughways.
Then came Town Meeting, that famous form of participatory government that still thrives here in New England: “They voted to take the cameras down,” said Betsy DeWitt, chairwoman of the Brookline Board of Selectmen. “The interesting thing was that they didn’t have the authority to do that,” she chuckled, “but they spoke loud and clear.”
Now, however, two years later, she said, “we’ve gone from a flat-out, ‘take them down!,’ to a willingness to accept them with, let’s say, protections in place. And that is very significant.”
How has Brookline come so far in its willingness to accept public surveillance? A lot of hard work by a citizen oversight committee that developed policies for the use of the surveillance system that made sense for the community, with a helping hand from the Constitution Project and technology provided by SituCon, which, among other things, provides a physical lens cover that opens when the system is in use and closes in an obvious way when the cameras are not operational.
“The covers are reassuring,” DeWitt said. “You can see the cameras are not on, and that alleviates concerns that the cameras could be remotely controlled and that the operator might manipulate them into residents’ windows or something. So having the covers makes it abundantly clear that they can’t be used for other than safety purposes.”
Policy mandates that the cameras only be on between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., or during an emergency situation, at which point first responders can activate the system—triggering a text message that is sent to the entire Board of Selectmen. Further, there is a monitor set up in Town Hall where anyone can come in off the street and see exactly what’s coming through the feed from the cameras—“It’s a good thing,” said DeWitt, “that most of the time it’s very boring.”
Seth Cirker, CEO of SituCon, said it’s been interesting to watch these kinds of situations play out as he’s brought his technology to market. Not a “security guy,” Cirker invented this solution—with the closing lens covers and software that’s very customizable for controlling when the cameras are on and who’s watching—to address both the mounting security threats to schools and municipalities and the very real and genuine privacy concerns held by the general public.
He’s already seeing staunch opponents of video surveillance, like those here in Brookline, become some of his best evangelists, he said. “This technology never existed,” he said. “It’s a different argument now.” Are the lens covers as much for public relations as anything else? “They’re redundant,” he admitted, as the software alone can control when the cameras are on or off and who has access, “but they’re crystal clear. The teachers or town workers know there’s no chance they’re being monitored. The teachers can look up and know there’s no way they’re being watched.” SituCon even has the ability to automatically launch a WiFi environment in the case of an emergency, when the cameras go live, that then shuts back down when the cameras are switched off, allowing, for example, first responders to arrive on site, log into the surveillance system, and know right away what’s happening inside.
The lens covers and software work with many camera types (it was a Bosch system here in Brookline), and while SituCon did the integration here as one of its first big customers, Cirker said the company is looking for dealers and partners to help make the technology more widely available and known.
DeWitt, who was certainly one of those initially opposed to the surveillance system, said the hard work has paid off in a surveillance system that’s paying dividends. It has already been used to capture two rapists (their truck was identified from video and forensic evidence was gathered within 24 hours) and clear a good cop’s name (he lost control of a vehicle during a chase, but video showed it wasn’t his fault). “I’m not sure we’ve converted all the ACLU folks,” she said, “and some of them are my good friends, but I think it’s recognized now that it’s possible to set up safeguards that everyone can live with.”
However, she noted, “at the first evidence of abuse, we’re going to lose that trust. It’s our obligation to make sure that never happens.”

Healthcare system standardizes so security is 'walking the same talk'

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:00:00 CDT

SAN ANTONIO, Texas—Standardizing security technology and the policies and procedures to accompany those systems is critical to operating a multiple-facility organization, said Mark Hart, director of security and environmental safety at Christus Santa Rosa Health System.
In order to standardize its security program, Christus healthcare system has undergone a major overhaul of its access control system at five of its hospital campuses throughout South-Central Texas. The five hospitals, with more than 1,100 beds, needed to transition more than 210 doors to a new access control system. The hospital chose to transition its access control system to Brivo OnSite SE/XE, but one of the most critical factors for Hart was determining how the hospital would manage two separate systems during the transition.
“We were going to have to have the system run parallel (to the existing system) and the biggest component was making sure we got it up and running before we eliminated the other system,” he said. In order to manage this process, Hart said it took a considerable amount of communication and coordination with Brivo as well as various departments in the hospital.
But standardizing technology was only part of the solution. It was critical for the security department to also develop shared policies and procedures so employees who work in more than one of the hospital’s facilities don’t have to learn new protocol. “This way, if we have security issues or emergency code issues, staff are trained on it and they know other facilities in another part of the system,” Hart said. “They’re walking the same talk and that’s a big benefit.”
Another benefit to standardizing the system was having a single data system for all facilities. “We built it from the ground up and it’s a clean database,” he said. The hospital also dedicated a staff position to maintaining that system. “The less hands in the cookie jar, the better. We have one position that all that person does is coordinate all the security components including the database,” he said.
As part of the standardizing process, the systems in all five hospitals rely on a centralized dispatch center. “We centralized the termination point of the system to a single operator dispatch system, so all alarms terminate at one central location. If there’s an issue, the operators call appropriate resources to respond,” he said.
Moving forward, Hart would like to see the hospital integrate its access control system with its CCTV. “We have the capability that when someone uses the badge reader the system would also pop up the video and let dispatch know who that person is,” he said.

New stadium: 'H.264 made us a lot more comfortable'

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:00:00 CDT

LOUISVILLE, Ky.—In a little more than a month, the new $252 million KFC Yum! Center will open, making it the fifth largest college basketball arena in the country. The 22,000-seat basketball and multi-purpose arena, which is scheduled to open on Sept. 10 (that’s 10.10.10) and where the University of Louisville will play, has taken more than four years to complete. Making sure it’s safe and secure has been a collaborative effort between the IT and security departments.
Alicia Dunlap, director of the division of information technology for the Kentucky State Fair Board, the managing body of KFC Yum!, has been involved in the project for about a year and a half. “We have been intimately involved in the design of IT for the building, which is good from an IT standpoint because we really understand it because we built it, so we know what’s there and understand all the components,” she said.
A big part of that design was incorporating various security systems into the network. But designing the system has been a lengthy process. “We attended conferences about these types of buildings and over the last four years we’ve gotten some great ideas from other facilities and seen where things went wrong and right,” she said.
One of the driving forces during the design phase was the use of H.264 technology, which the organization didn’t have in any of its other facilities. “We’ve been shifting those other facilities to megapixel cameras—three and above—and so the ability to save that bandwidth and maintain video quality in this arena (using H.264), plus saving that storage space is crazy,” she said. Because they used H.264, Dunlap said the building only has a 10G backbone. “H.264 made us a lot more comfortable,” she said.
But when deciding what type of technology to incorporate into the building, Dunlap said they took nothing at face value. One of the best strategies during the design and implementation phase was setting up an onsite lab, where security and IT officials could test out devices and incorporate them directly into the system. “When we get a new product,” she said, “we don’t want to put in on production because we don’t want it not to work. With the lab, we are able to put it up and decide if we like it or not.”
There are 106 cameras in the arena and 40 cameras in the parking garage. Almost all cameras are PoE, which saved the stadium considerable costs in cabling and electric installation costs, said Dunlap. It was also critical for the department to outline the use of each camera prior to installation. The arena used Nextiva, an IP video management platform from Verint Video Intelligence Solutions, to manage the system. “We sat down with Verint and went through, camera by camera, programming each one so that this card reader triggers that camera and we made a spreadsheet so there are certain cameras that triggers this or focuses on that location.”
Being able to mix and match technologies was also critical to the design of this building. “Everybody proposed proprietary solutions versus open solutions and that would lock us in,” she said. “From the IT world, we don’t want that and we want to be able to put in any kind of switch and not be locked in.” For example, they decided to use Dell servers because “we wanted to be able to use whatever works best in that particular mix,” she said, rather than using DVRs , because they didn’t want to “get locked into a technology.”
The arena also incorporates biometric card readers in addition to prox readers. The biometric readers from AMAG, which was a new technology for the IT department, are only installed on locker room doors. This is because, Dunlap said, while the stadium is largely used for the University of Louisville men’s and women’s basketball teams, it’s not actually owned by the university. Dunlap said it was fairly complex to incorporate student IDs into the system, so instead they decided to protect those access points with biometric technology.

Police turn to video thanks to citywide Wi-Fi

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:00:00 CDT

LOMPOC, Calif.—In September, the Lompoc Police Department will begin phase one of a three-part, citywide video management project to enhance the department’s ability to monitor activity within the city. During this initial phase, the department will add in-car cameras and new computers from RoboVu, to enhance each officer’s situational awareness and assist them in prosecuting cases, said Captain Larry Ralston, who has been leading this project for the Lompoc Police Department.
The video system from RoboVu, which partnered with Insight Video Net to design the system, will allow officers to tag events in the field and will wirelessly upload video to a server when the car returns to the police station. “This gives officers the freedom to use tools that they don’t usually use in their cars,” Ralston said. “With this new system, officers can tap into cameras remotely and watch surveillance from their patrol cars at hotspots where there’s gang activity.”
In phase two of the project, the city will begin installing a wireless mesh system and initially add 12 cameras. The city currently has no video cameras in place. In addition to mounted surveillance cameras, which will be a mixture of stationary and PTZ, the police department also plans to place covert cameras in gang-infested neighborhoods.
Ralston said the public has been very supportive of the city’s efforts to install this system. “There was a huge city-wide cleanup effort recently where 450 residents volunteered to cover up graffiti around the city. It would’ve been nice to have covert cameras available to put where the graffiti was the heaviest and then monitor those cameras to pick off the people doing the damage,” he said.
The department is also evaluating the use of license plate readers in police vehicles, which can largely improve officer efficiency and patrolling. Ralston said the department isn’t interested in red-light cameras because the city doesn’t have the traffic flow at its intersections that would warrant the investment in the technology.
Having all the video integrated together will help officers track and store evidence and will help them be more efficient, Ralston said. While the files will remain individual pieces, those pieces will all be tagged with identifiers to tie them together to specific cases, so “when (officers) need to bring up evidence for court, it’s far more accessible and manageable,” he said. “We can make evidence available in minutes.”
In the final phase of the project, the department hopes to build its partnership with private companies to share video. “I know there are a couple of banks in the city that have expressed interest in sending live video to us and we’re hoping we’ll be able to do that,” he said. Also in this final phase, the department plans to integrate the 12 existing cameras used to monitor its 23-bed jail facility, including cameras in its four interview rooms. Although these existing cameras are all analog, Ed Foster, CEO and co-founder of RoboVu, said it was fairly simple to add an encoder and tie them in with the system.
One of the major reasons the department of 51 officers was able to undergo such an extensive project was because the municipality installed a city-wide Wi-Fi system. “Several years ago I worked for a police department that had an in-car video system and it was an early version using VCRs. It was good, but incomplete,” he said. “When I came to this department, we began looking at different ways to use the Wi-Fi system the city installed several years ago that was used mostly for city services such as meter reading.”
Knowing it had the network infrastructure in place, the city applied for a Homeland Security Grant to provide the funding for the cameras. The department ended up winning the $400,000 technology grant, which will go towards installing the city-surveillance system.
However, this project has had to overcome some serious hurdles before it even began. One of the biggest challenges has been researching and learning about what type of system to implement. “We’re police officers trying to do something that is usually left up to IT people,” said Ralston. “We’re having to learn as much as we can, as quickly as we can, and finding out what questions we need to ask – that was a challenge for us.”

TSA tests self-boarding procedures

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:00:00 CDT

HOUSTON—The Transportation Security Administration has confirmed initial tests of a self-boarding procedure at a Continental Airlines gate in George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, reported USA Today.
Self-boarding passengers swipe their boarding passes at a kiosk reader at the gate, which opens a turnstile or door to the jet-bridge. This procedure is intended to free up airline agents from swiping boarding passes and does not jeopardize security procedures, TSA spokesman Greg Soule told the publication. The TSA "determined it does not impact the security of the traveling public,” he said. All passengers are still screened at airport checkpoints prior to arriving at boarding gates.
Self-boarding is the latest in a series of new technology implementations that airlines are using to automate airline travel. Also new are boarding pass barcodes e-mailed to smartphones.

Schools still need education about mass notification

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 00:00:00 CDT

LAS VEGAS—The market for mass notification is maturing, says Pete Tately, Siemen’s program manager for mass notification, but slowly.
In the past two years, “a lot has been learned, but a lot hasn’t changed,” he said. More frequently than you’d expect, he said, Siemens will “get in front of a customer and many are hearing about it for the first time.” Even in higher education, he said, “they are still learning about it.”
“Many went out with the quick message thing,” such as an emergency text alert system, he said. “They thought they had it knocked out in six months, but two years later they realize that while that system serves a purpose,” it’s not a complete mass notification system.
Seimens came out with its Sygnal mass notification system two years ago and it’s sold through both its franchise channel, Siemens Solutions Partners, and directly through Siemens Building Technologies. It’s data-centric, not fire-centric system, but it can be tied into the fire system.
Siemens is taking a targeted approach to educating the market about mass notification, he said. The company has 14 representatives across the country “dedicated to selling and educating about mass notification at the street level.” The company also has a number of marketing activities, and this year began an education series where it does seminars, with a panel of experts presenting information on specific events where mass notification systems would be appropriate. Siemens is doing a several large events and has 15 smaller-scale, but similar programs scheduled at its dealers’ offices.
The other issue that’s slowed down the predicted rapid adoption of mass notification is cost. Installing a complete system is expensive. That’s why Siemens is redirected its approach somewhat to sell and install the system in stages. The systems may be able to do everything, integrate and make more useful every system imaginable—phone, computer, electronic signage for example—but in terms of selling “you can make the subject way too big.”
Siemens’ pitch for Sygnal these days: “Let’s start with the right platform ... as you need the extra pieces you can add them on.”

TSA expected to miss screening deadline

Tue, 6 Jul 2010 00:00:00 CDT

WASHINGTON—With less than a month to go, the Government Accountability Office in June issued a report stating that the Transportation Security Administration is not expected to be able to meet the 9/11 Commission Act’s August 2010 mandate for 100 percent screening of domestic air cargo aboard passenger aircraft.
While the report found that the TSA has made considerable progress in reaching this goal, it faces challenges in fully developing and implementing the program. One of the reasons is that shipper participation in the Certified Cargo Screening Program has been lower than originally estimated. The CCSP was designed to allow cargo to be screened along the supply chain in order to relieve TSA of some of the screening burden. One of the reasons for low participation, that report says, is the fact TSA’s lacks of inspection resources—the funds, personnel and program to oversee CCSP entities. The TSA and industry officials reported that several factors, such as lack of economic and regulatory incentives, are also contributing to low shipper participation levels.
Also, the TSA lacks the approved technology necessary to screen pallets and containers. While the TSA is working to complete qualification testing of several air cargo screening technologies, it has not yet met that goal.
One of the GAO’s recommendations is that the TSA develop a contingency plan with alternatives to addressing these screening challenges. “Alternatives could include, but are not limited to, mandating CCSP participation for certain members of the air cargo supply chain—instead of relying on their voluntary participation—and requiring the screening of some or all cargo before it is loaded onto ULD pallets and containers,” read the report.

The strategies of choosing a new security provider

Tue, 6 Jul 2010 00:00:00 CDT

THE INTERNET—Choosing a new security provider can be a turbulent time for any organization, but it can be especially challenging in the aviation environment. One of the keys to a smooth transition with a new provider is to ensure that the management styles mesh, said John Dean, senior manager of aviation security at the Portland International Airport in Oregon, which recently switched security providers.
“We found it was critical to get familiar with the company culture of our security service provider … We talked to their proposal team about values, morals, the chain of command and the communication channel to make sure it’s similar to our organizational culture,” said Dean during a June 24 Webinar entitled Airport Security Contracting Best Practices sponsored by Senstar.
Because of the uniqueness of the aviation environment, it’s also important their management team has experience and understands airport operations, Dean said. “If we all understand each other’s role and responsibilities, we all become more efficient in what we do.” One of the strategies Dean used to familiarize himself with the security provider’s culture was reviewing its newsletters. “We did this to get a bigger picture to see if they acknowledge great work and recognize their employees,” he said.
Especially in the airport setting, it’s important for a provider to be flexible and capable of adjusting to changes in staffing needs. “If you have budget impacts or new projects starting/ending or emergency support, take a look at their contingency of available officers to amp up or support you during a crisis,” Dean said. “How long would it take for five-to-10 additional officers and what would it cost to provide additional staff on short notice?”
Training is obviously a big component as well. “We’re big at PDX with customer service and it’s all about the level of service at the airport,” he said. Including management teams on exercises and drills is a big part of ensuring the best protection of the airport. “We always include providers in tabletop exercises so they understand what’s going to take place and that they have a role in responding,” he said.
Retaining employees also requires the airport offers competitive wages, benefits, vacation time and access to affordable healthcare, said Lori Beckman, president/founder of Aviation Security Consulting and the former security director for the Denver International Airport.
It’s also important to create incentive-driven contracts, she said. Offering nominal financial incentives such as bonus pay for meeting certain requirements can boost employee retention, but money doesn’t have to be the only incentive. Employee recognition in front of peers can also be beneficial. “At the end of the day, you’ll spend a lot less time and money managing the contract if incentives are there,” she said.

Using 3D technology to design a security system

Tue, 6 Jul 2010 00:00:00 CDT

MONTREAL—When designing where to hang cameras, how useful would it be to know almost exactly what a camera’s view would be before ever turning a screw? According to Daniel Jeanson, president of integrator SGPTI, pretty useful: “We used to spend days on site figuring out how to position the cameras. Now we don’t have to.”
That’s because SGPTI is using Feeling Software’s Omnipresence 3D to create virtual models of the buildings and campuses in which the company is working. “As soon as the 3D drawings are done,” he said, “I can see exactly how I can position the camera, and it tells me exactly what I would see. I can see if I have the right camera and the right lens without having to install anything.”
But isn’t the 3D imaging time-consuming and expensive? Jeanson said for a recent university job, “we were all aware there would be a cost for that, but when we approached the school, they decided to spend more, reasoning that if they have a better system, that’s easier to navigate, it will provide more advantages to the agents operating the system.”
That’s because, after the installation, the Feeling Software interface also allows operators to know exactly where the camera they are viewing is in the building, and it makes it easier to follow a moving person through a building or the entire campus.
“For them to know all these cameras is not easy,” said Jeanson, “and this makes it very simple. The good news for us as an integrator is the fact that we can just position the cameras without leaving our offices.”
As Feeling Software integrates with more VMS providers, that benefit will be more widespread. For example, the company in June announced an integration with Pelco’s Endura platform, which allows for Feeling’s Omnipresence 3D platform to be deployed on any new or existing location where Endura is installed.
Initially, Jeanson allowed, the Feeling engineers need to be on-site to support installation and set-up. “They are more familiar with the 3D,” he said. “It’s a team effort, where I’m an expert on video surveillance, and they know more about the 3D and making sure it’s designed correctly ... but maybe in the future we won’t need them.”

Stanley makes two buys in two weeks

Tue, 6 Jul 2010 00:00:00 CDT

NAPERVILLE, Ill.—After a relatively inactive spring on the acquisition front, Stanley CSS made two buys in two weeks, following up last week’s Sonitrol of the Tri-State buy with a purchase this week of Sonitrol of Allentown, a Sonitrol franchise since 1979, located in Allentown, Pa. According to Stanley, the sale includes mostly commercial accounts including retail, restaurant, industrial, financial, service and education customers being serviced throughout eastern Pennsylvania.
John and Carmen Steele, who’ve owned the franchise since 1983, are retiring from the business.
“They’re a very nice couple and they were ready to retire,” said Felix Gonzales, VP of strategic initiatives and business development at Stanley CSS, “but we worked with them over the last number of months and they did a lot to prepare the business to make that transition. They took an awful lot of care with the customers and setting the accounts up ... They feel comfortable that Stanley will come and step into their shoes and provide the same service they’ve been providing since 1983.”
Those customers will be serviced by the existing Stanley CSS office located in Langhorne, Pa.
In other Stanley news, the departure of CSO Don Young and CFO Dan Bresingham to go work with the new Protection One executive team has not left an unfilled void, Gonzales said. While he wouldn’t comment on Young and Bresingham’s departure, he did note the arrival of new Stanley CSS CFO Jason Martin, who comes from Stanley’s Healthcare Solutions group; along with Jim Kopplin, new COO for North America and United Kingdom Direct, and Mike Bishop as senior VP of field operations for the United States, both of whom were promoted up from the Stanley CSS ranks.
“This shows we’ve got a deep bench,” Gonzales said. “Whenever there’s an opportunity for growth, and you take top talent from within, that’s a positive message across the board.” Further, while Young and Bresingham both were part of the HSM team that came to Stanley CSS, and Protection One’s Tim Whall appears to be surrounding himself with his former ADT and HSM staff, Gonzales noted that you can’t point to any one source for Stanley CSS’s top execs.
“We recently had a leadership meeting,” he said, “where we brought together regional VPs, directors, senior leadership, and as you looked into the crowd, it solidified what we’ve always told people: ‘We’re interested in bringing the best together.’ There were guys that came from HSM, leaders from the Sonitrol acquisition, some from acquisitions like National Alarm Pro, Best Access, Integrator.com, you can go down the list of the number of companies that we’ve acquired that are part of Stanley’s history. So when we talk about bringing people up, it’s good to remember that it’s made up of a diverse group of backgrounds. It’s definitely not just old HSM or old Stanley or old Sonitrol guys. It’s the best of the best.”