As physical security systems technology continues to advance by leaps and bounds, providing new intelligent capabilities, the demand for proactive solutions continues to resonate with industry professionals and end-users across virtually every vertical market. Preventing crimes, vandalism and other potentially damaging events from occurring is the new golden ring for business owners looking to reduce liabilities and the financial and brand damages associated with them. But there is a significant difference between being able to detect crime and violence and preventing it from happening. The latter requires the right balance of technology and human resources to be effective.
Active vs. Passive Security Monitoring
Its important to clearly delineate the significant differences between active and passive security measures to establish an accurate assessment of their respective capabilities. First, it is most important to acknowledge that passive security monitoring system technologies have advanced quite a bit just in recent years. The continued evolution of powerful software driven video management, access control and alarm system technologies has resulted in new intelligent features and functions that provide rather impressive event detection capabilities. Advanced artificial neural networks continue to get faster and smarter while also being utilized to develop rather sophisticated security analytics that can be centrally deployed or embedded in end-point devices such as surveillance cameras, access readers and various types of sensors. These new software and hardware products have effectively become new “feelers” across most every facet of today’s more advanced physical security systems.
It’s all pretty impressive stuff, but with a fundamental shortcoming – detection is not prevention. Once a potential vandal, burglar, thief or active shooter is detected, passive system solutions typically trigger alarms and notifications to initiate some form of response. The problem is that these system event detectors may be too late in actually preventing damage to property or assets, or worse harm to people.
Human Resources Plus Technology Make the Difference
Proactive video monitoring provides businesses with a highly effective and cost-efficient way to help stop criminal activity in its tracks or from escalating further. Although much of the physical security systems technology may be the same, the difference is having dedicated and trained security professionals monitoring these systems in real-time. Hence the moment a potential problem is detected, expertly trained security specialists can verify and intervene as needed with live-personalized audio warnings. This proactive monitoring approach has been proven to have a 98% efficacy rate in deterring bad behavior and stopping crimes at Netwatch. In fact, our Proactive Video Monitoring (PVM) service has proven effective in preventing over 80,000 crimes at our customers’ business locations to date.
We’ve accomplished such high levels of proactive prevention by enlisting the expertise of highly trained intervention specialists with specialized skillsets to detect, analyze and address potential threats as they are unfolding in real-time. This enables them to respond instantly with the best course of action to de-escalate or minimize harm to people, property and assets. Stationed in highly advanced communication monitoring centers based here in the United States, Netwatch intervention specialists maintain continuous vigilance with total monitoring redundancy, ensuring that constant and uninterrupted surveillance is maintained.
Live human resources provides proactive monitoring services with another significant advantage over passive security monitoring. Professional intervention specialists factor experience and human intuition into the security equation. Aside from leveraging the latest physical security technologies, Netwatch’s team of trained security professionals know the distinct security challenges and nuances that different types of businesses face, enabling them to provide an added dimension to security operations.
Contact us to start a conversation with our team of security experts on how PVM can better protect your business.
