In safe city projects, control and management happen at the command center, where operators are aided by various tools, such as PSIM (physical security information management) systems and data management platforms, to manage incidents.
With urbanization and population growth becoming more common across the global, city administrators are turning to technology to run security and other operations more effectively. In safe city projects, control and management happen at the command center, where operators are aided by various tools, such as PSIM (physical security information management) systems and data management platforms, to manage incidents.
“PSIM plays a vital role in any safe city program. Its ability to work with the large number of connected subsystems, its ability to distribute intelligence, its reporting engine, the customizable GUIs, all help to drive various benefits,” said Adlan Hussain, VP of Marketing at CNL Software.
According to him, the benefits of PSIM include reduced cost of evidence gathering, investigations, analysis and case management; reduced cost of operations created by less dependence on live video; ability to migrate to new technology without significant impacts to the operation; and reduced cost of aggregating new and legacy video systems, including video export to central and remote operations.
Today, PSIM software is being used to integrate not only with facial detection, ANPR, analytics, audio analytics, and CBRNe systems but also with weather and environmental monitoring systems as well as videos from body-worn cameras on law enforcement officials.
“More emphasis is placed on these integrations where a city has a record of extreme weather, such as snow, hurricanes, tsunamis, and earthquakes,” he said. “The use of body-worn cameras is increasingly considered a best practice among safe city law enforcement across the globe. Police departments are using cameras as a means of reducing the number of incidents in which force is used and as an important tool to protect officers from baseless allegations of abuse. With this trend on the rise, methods need to be developed to efficiently manage the huge volumes of video being created through BWV. Specifically, police forces are identifying ways to aggregate the video intelligence gained from BWV with other intelligence sources.”
According to Hussain, a well-designed PSIM system should hide the complexity from operators, providing them with the tools they need to effectively perform their function. “The use of drag and drop, step by step process guidance, intuitive mapping and alarm management tools all make managing the large number of disparate systems significantly faster than using the native systems. In an emergency this can save valuable time and often save lives,” he said.
Product Adopted:Physical Security Information Management Software