Time. Accuracy. And Calm.
Any experienced security professional will tell you how utterly invaluable these elements are, especially when dealing with fast-moving threats, high-value facilities, and a limited security team.
SnapTrack™ sets a new standard for security-related whole-site situational awareness.
The archetype of whole-site security is a security team member in front of a wall full of monitors, showing camera feeds from multiple, sometimes dozens of areas inside and outside the facility. The image of the coffee-sipping security guard dividing their attention amidst the many screens is familiar, but flawed, especially as the next step of escalation often shows the same security guard frantically snapping their gaze back and forth between different screens as they shout updates—more panicked information than helpful instructions—into a walkie talkie.
SnapTrack allows the same security guard to operate more like an overwatch or monitoring officer, colloquially referred to as the “guy in the chair”. Calm, collected, with the full picture in a single view—able to give highly precise, live instructions to their security team.
What is SnapTrack?
SnapTrack is a new, patent-pending feature of Spotter Global’s Command and Control (C2) NetworkedIO (NIO) security software.
The principle is simple: the NIO system directs the security system’s cameras to take snapshot photos of live targets as they move through the monitored area (usually including areas both within the site perimeter and areas immediately surrounding the site perimeter). The computer determines which of the captured snapshots is clearest/most recent or relevant, and uses that snapshot to fill in the target’s tracking square icon on the whole-site NIO map.
This creates a live-data map of the whole site that includes snapshots of the current targets on the site. This is valuable because, instead of needing to switch their attention between the map view with minimally-descriptive target icons and the camera feeds for more highly-precise identifying data on the targets, the locations of all perimeter security targets and all that identifying data can be seen together on the live site map. This streamlines security attention and allows for faster, more accurate threat estimations and resultant decision making.
Redundancy in the Case of Camera Failures
Sometimes cameras go offline. Sometimes they have blind spots. Sometimes cameras are able to get a good view of an intruder, but then that view becomes blocked by smoke, fog, snow, rain, or other environmental obscurants. SnapTrack helps to solve the problem of temporary camera view lapses.
The most recent, highest-quality photo of the target will remain on the NIO map, attached to the radar-tracked target, even if the camera view temporarily fails. The radar tracks the moving targets continuously through darkness, fog, dust, rain, snow, and other obscurants. And as long as the radar track persists, the previously-captured SnapTrack image will remain attached to the target. No need for anxiety-induced flurries of speculation on the target’s location or identity when camera views are temporarily blocked.
Identifying Data: How SnapTrack Pictures Make a Difference
What kind of identifying data does SnapTrack feature make more readily available in the whole-site security picture?
For human targets detected by the site’s security system, the SnapTrack feature will allow security personnel to quickly determine:
Size
Build
Clothing
General body posture
And sometimes:
Gender
Ethnicity
The presence of a weapon
Quickly knowing which intruders are armed, which perimeter security targets are recognizable maintenance staff, and precisely where on site all of them are, is vital information to keep straight during a live security incident. SnapTrack keeps that information cleanly displayed and easy to read on a single screen.
Fortunately, it’s not just on-foot human intruders that can be more precisely tracked and identified with SnapTrack. For vehicles, SnapTrack will also clearly show:
Size
Color
Possible make and model
Possible license plate number
And for drones, SnapTrack can make clear:
Size
Color
Possible make and model
Possible registration number
Possible presence of a payload
The more detailed and accurate information security teams have, and the faster they can have that information, the better decisions they can make to mitigate security incidents.
Disguised Intruders: Identification via Tracking
Stealthier perimeter security threats may sometimes try to hide in the midst of other site traffic. For example, a criminal drone may fly in over a site during a time when friendly, authorized maintenance drones are already at work over the site, hoping to blend in, be mistaken for an approved drone, and get farther in their goals without being detected or apprehended.
Another scenario on a busy site, is that of an on-foot human intruder putting on maintenance clothes and sneaking into the building at the same time but via a different route than other maintenance workers, hoping the security system and personnel will dismiss them as part of the authorized maintenance crew.
Determined criminals are willing to go to all kinds of deceptive lengths to achieve their ends. For this reason, it’s important that all moving entities within and near the site be precisely tracked as even the route chosen by an intruder can help differentiate them from entities with legitimate business on the site. After identifying suspect intentions, continuing to track a disguised target’s path becomes vital for apprehension
Coordinating Mitigation with SnapTrack
Sometimes, gates, locks, automated warning sirens and floodlights are enough to mitigate an approaching threat. And sometimes live security personnel or security drones have to be sent out to directly confront the threat. Communicating and coordinating with your mitigation team, especially as they approach an intruding element and initiate confrontation, is vital to increasing the chances of a peaceful resolution or at least one with as little damage to personnel and property as possible.
With a steady, clear and accurate view of where friend and foe alike are on the NIO Map, security personnel can calmly and efficiently direct their teams forward. If the situation changes, if the intruder changes their route, speeds up, prepares their weapon, or otherwise changes the tactical conditions of the upcoming encounter, the “eye in the sky” security team member in front of the NIO can update their team right away. No surprises around corners, just efficient tactics to resolve the situation as quickly and peacefully as possible.
Even if there is no security team on-site capable of confronting the intruder, SnapTrack makes activity history on the site clear, recording the path and identifying features of any visitor, intruder or otherwise, at every step. This will help provide airtight evidence in the event of later legal proceedings.