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Conducting sucessful CCTV surveillance

In many CCTV control rooms around the world, large numbers of operators are looking at a number of monitor screens displaying images of areas they know little about, and possible incident conditions they are unlikely to spot because they do not realise what they are looking at.

This is because those who run some of these operations are presuming that things are easy to detect, and will be self evident to those watching the screens.

The truth is far from this and the reality is that many operators are being paid to watch a series of video sequences that they are unlikely to ever respond to. CCTV surveillance, done properly, is a skilled and demanding job that is often not given the recognition it deserves.

CCTV is not a passive activity like watching TV. We watch TV to relax, to distract our minds and to escape from some of the day-to-day demands of life. However, CCTV needs the active involvement of an operator and a continual assessment of what is occurring on screen.

Further, it also involves the need to look at things within the context of what is expected to happen or what may be occurring in other areas around the site. Successful operators are sensitive to the feel of a situation and how it may differ from previous experiences of that particular area or scene.

So how do we get this kind of surveillance process? Some considerations of what operators should be doing are provided below.

Operators need the ability to analyse the context in which any change occurs. Sometimes referred to as situational awareness, this presumes knowledge of what normally occurs in that area, an ability to link things together and effective observation skills to pick up the relevant components and people in any video picture.

Operators should have the ability to read a situation and anticipate behaviour or events. For this to happen, they need to understand how crime happens and what they should look for.

Being able to relate things across time is important in understanding how elements of the behaviour are linked together. Operators need to be thinking how the activity they are currently watching is related to things that have been happening in the past, or others that are happening at the same time.

Operators need to recognise relevant behavioural cues when the incident occurs. This implies that they need to be looking in the right place or at the people where this behaviour is likely to show something is happening. It also means that they should be sensitive to the particular behaviour that is associated with how people commit offences.

Successful operators are constantly vigilant and continually looking for when something is likely to take place. Some people have the natural observation skills to be successful in surveillance. This reflects a kind of aptitude for looking at situations and spotting issues. While these observation skills account for much of the success of people and point to the need for effective selection, surveillance also calls for the development of these kinds of skills in people. Training and becoming aware of how to look, and what to look for, are critical factors in successful CCTV surveillance.

Implemented properly, surveillance leads to a process of anticipating, detecting, assigning appropriate responses, effective post incident assessment, and ultimately the collection of appropriate evidence that can lead to successful prosecution. By examining the process whereby an operator goes about surveillance, and how the operator explains what they are looking at on screen, one can get a good idea if the surveillance is meaningful and is effectively protecting people, assets and areas.

Dr Craig Donald

Dr Craig Donald is a human factors specialist in security and CCTV. He is a director of Leaderware, which provides instruments for the selection of CCTV operators, X-ray screeners and other security personnel in major operations around the world. He also runs CCTV Surveillance Skills and Body Language, and Advanced Surveillance Body Language courses for CCTV operators, supervisors and managers internationally, and consults on CCTV management. He can be contacted on +27 (0)11 787 7811 or craig.donald@leaderware.com

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