AST 'CHAMPIONS' Edition December 2017 Digital-Dec | Page 57

Volume 18
How many “eccentric” guests bring a
boat load of suitcases, leashed dogs
and a whole entourage of stragglers?
Especially those labeled as “high rollers” or
those enjoying VIP status, as was the case of
Mr. Scumbag.
This is normal behavior in Las Vegas. In fact, we
actually have come to expect it.
If they didn’t arrive in the Rolls and didn’t act as
if they were better than everyone else we would
think that to be peculiar and maybe it would
sound an alarm for someone.
GIVE THE SECURITY OFFICE CREDIT –
THE CCTV SYSTEM WAS EFFECTIVE
Another key misconception here is what the true
purpose of CCTV is.
Most untrained folks and many within the securi-
ty industry too, believe CCTV is a detection tool.
For example, SurroundVideo Omni cameras from Arecont Vi-
sion, which features four individual day/night mechanical IR
cut filters for the highest image quality at any time of day.
The reality is it isn’t.
It’s an assessment tool.
The camera doesn’t “detect” anything.
It captures all behavior both good and bad.
December 2017 Edition
Just like your eye. It sees what it sees.
You have to decide or assess if what you see is
“good” or “bad”.
The same for CCTV, it sees what it sees, then
it’s up to someone else to monitor what is being
seen to distinguish what is wanted or unwanted
and react to the “unwanted”.
Luckily, there are camera systems currently
available on the market that are very sophisti-
cated and do a very good job with their analytics
to assist the person watching the monitor with
this assessment.
There are also some predictive software ana-
lytics that can watch the field of view and say,
“Since the guy’s dressed like a Ninja, chances
are he’s gonna pull out a sword”.
These are assessment tools and they have to be
treated that way.
(An excellent example of coordinated analytics, is the DHS
S&T Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA) Ex-
plosives Division (EXD) Surface Transportation Explosives
Threat Detection (STETD) Program, working to provide a
layered, integrated capability to detect and mitigate explosive
threats for the surface transportation end-user community at
the speed of the traveling public. Courtesy of DHS Science
and Technology Directorate and YouTube)
However, the real value of CCTV is its ability to
go back in time. For that reason, they’re a great
tool for evidentiary purposes.
So, in reality the CCTV did exactly as planned, it
57