PROTECTION OF ASSETS : AN OVERVIEW
The application and integration of closed-circuit television (CCTV) to safety and security has come of age. CCTV' is a reliable, cost-effective deterrent and a means for apprehending and prosecuting offenders. Today, most safety and security applications require several different types of systems. such as alarm, lire detection, intrusion prevention and detection, access control and now CCTV.
Security personnel today are responsible for multifaceted security and safety systems, in which CCTV plays an important role. With today's increasing labor costs, CCTV more than ever before has earned its place as a cost-effective means for improving security and safety, while reducing security budgets.
Loss of assets and time due to theft is a growing cancer on our society that eats away at the profits of every organization or business, be it government, retail, service, or manufacturing. The size of the organization makes no difference to the thief. The larger the company, the more theft occurs, and the greater the opportunity for losses. The more valuable the product, the easier it is for a thief to dispose of it, and thus the greater the temptation is to steal it. A properly designed and applied CCTV system can he an extremely profitable investment for an institution. The main objective of the CCTV’ system should he not the apprehension of thieves but rather increased deterrence through security. A successful thief needs privacy; a television system can deny that privacy.
As a security by-product, CCTV has emerged as an effective training tool for managers and security personnel. The use of CCTV systems has resulted in improved employee efficiency and increased productivity.
The public at large has accepted the use of CCTV systems in public and industrial facilities, and workers’ resistance to it is steadily decreasing. With the belt-tightening underway in today’s businesses, employees and others begin looking for other ways such as theft or industrial espionage to increase their income and pay the bills. CCTV is being applied to counteract these losses and increase corporate profits. In many case histories, ¿liter CCTV was installed, shoplifting and employee thefts dropped sharply. The number of thefts cannot be counted exactly, but the reduction in shrinkiige can be measured, and it this been shown that CCTV is an effective psychological deterrent to crime.
Theft is not only the unauthorized removal of valuable property hut also the removal of information, such as computer software, magnetic tape and disks, optical disks, microfilm, and data on paper. CCTV surveillance systems provide a means for successfully deterring such thievery and/or detecting or apprehending offenders. Another form of loss that CCTV' prevents is the willful destruction of property, for example vandalizing buildings, defacing elevator interiors, painting graffiti on art objects and facilities. demolishing furniture or other valuable equipment, and destroying computer rooms. CCTV offers the greatest potenual benefit when integrated with other sensing systems (e.g., alarms) and used to view remote areas. For example, when combined with smoke detectors, CCTV cameras in inaccessible areas can be used to give advance warning of afire.
But CCTV' is only a link in the overall security of a facility. Organizations must develop a complete security plan rather than adopt piecemeal protection measures, and react to problems only as they occur. To make die best use of CCTV technology, die practitioner and end user must understand all of its aspects from light sources to video monitors. The capabilities and limitations of CCTV during daytime and nighttime operation must also be understood.
The protection of ¿issets is a management function. Three key factors govern the planning of an assets protection program: (1) an adequate plan designed to prevent losses from occurring, (2) adequate countermeasures to limit losses and unpresentable losses, and (S) support of the protection plan by top management.
History
Throughout history, humans have valued above all else their own life and the lives of their loved ones. Next in value has been their property. Over the centuries many techniques have been developed to protect property against invaders or aggressors threatening to take ot destroy it.
More recently, manufacturing, industrial, and government organizations have hired “watchmen" to protect their facilities. These private police, wearing uniforms and using equipment much like the police do. sought to prevent crime primarily theft on the protected premises. Contract protection organizations, typified by Pinkerton’s and Rums, provided a new and usually less expensive guard force, which industrial employers began to use widely.
World War II supplied the single most important impetus to the growing protection of industrial premises. Private corporations obtained such protection through contract agencies to guard classified facilities and work.
As technology advanced, alarm systems and eventually CCTV were introduced in the early 1960s, when companies such as the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) began introducing vacuum-tube television cameras.
Today’s state-of-the-art security system includes CCTV as a key component. There are many applications for CCTV equipment to provide general surveillance, security, and safety.
Having begun in the 1960s, the CCTV industry grew rapidly throughout the 1970s, because of increased reliability and technological improvements in the tube-type camera. In the 1980s growth continued at a more modest level, with further improvements in functions and other accessories for television security systems. The most significant advance during the 1980s was the introduction of the solid-state CCTV camera; by the early 1990s, it had replaced most tube cameras of the past 30 years.
The most significant driving force behind this CCTV explosion has been the worldwide increase in theft and terrorism and the commensurate need to more adequately protect personnel and assets. Another factor has been the rapid improvement in equipment capability at affordable prices, resulting from the widespread use of solid-state CCTV for consumer use (made possible through technological breakthroughs) and the availability of low-cost videocassette recorders (VCRs) and associated camera equipment. These two driving forces have accelerated the development and implementation of the excellent CCTV equipment available today.
In the past, the camera in particular, the vidicon sensor tubewas the critical item in system design. The camera determined the overall performance, quantity, and quality of visual intelligence obtainable from the security system, because the camera’s image tube, subject to degradation with age and \isage, was the weakest link in the system. The complexity and variability of the image tube and its analog electrical nature made it less reliable than the other solid-state components. Performance varied considerably between different camera models and camera manufacturers, and as a function of temperature and age. Today the situation is considerably different. Solid-state charged coupled device (CCD) and metal-oxide semiconductor cameras are now available. While the various solid-state cameras have different features, they are reliable, with modest variat ions in sensitivity and resolution depending on the manufacturer rather than inherent generic differences as in tube cameras. Systems are more reliable and stable, since the tube has been replaced with a solid-state device that does not wear out. This innovation and popular consumer use of camcorders has resulted in the widespread use of solid-state monochrome and color cameras in security applications.