Utilising Automation in Surveillance Technology
We live in a digital age, where technology is constantly advancing. One such development is that AI software and automation are reducing the need for, and often completely outperforming, formerly necessary human input for repetitive tasks.
Surveillance technology has kept up with the rapid progress of AI programmes and automation, so much so, that we can now harness the power this software has to offer. It may sound daunting, but with the right implementation, you will be able to free-up resources and help your police organisation to do more.
What is it?
As mentioned earlier, it refers to the use of technology and software to automate often monotonous tasks. With less need for human interactions, it enables faster incident response and removes human error (e.g., through fatigue or distraction).
Automating IT security operations, reporting, user management, and much more, allows for less staff-hours sunk into administrative tasks, often leading to overtime, and more focus to be put on more important aspects of the job.
Why automate?
The use of automation in police organisation systems/processes, however small or large, can save countless staff-hours. Freeing up this time will improve efficiency and reduce overtime, leading to budget savings and improved health and wellbeing for staff.
Improved incident response
Automating some processes will improve incident response rates through increased efficiency of tasks. It allows for the prioritisation of threats and emergency responses by reducing the involvement of human intervention and reaction times, breakdown of communications while reviewing footage, and human error.
Removes human error
During shifts, be they long, uneventful, or busy shifts, it is easy to imagine a lapse in concentration or the need to step away for a break. In this small window of time, an emergency incident could occur, and with a lack of focus or an unwatched station, precious minutes could be lost. The addition of automation to processes such as video feed analysis, should increase success rates with the aforementioned improved response time and removing the need to have round-the-clock staffing, which saves costs.
“Doing more with less”
With budgets getting tighter, resources more limited, and overtime becoming more common to manage workloads, introducing automation into your everyday tasks, however small, will in turn allow your precious resources to stretch a bit further. On top of the benefits previously mentioned, this will have budget saving implications and improve the health and wellbeing of your staff by reducing the amount of overtime potentially being used to catch-up with administrative tasks.
In a rapidly, ever-developing, digital world, it’s important that we stay at the forefront of these technological advancements and utilise the latest solutions for our modern problems. If you want to learn more about this topic and how it could work for your police organisation, join our free Law Enforcement Webinar – Utilising Automation in Surveillance Technology – on Thu 29 Jun 2023.