A security officer at a construction site was the most surprised one…
Security agencies draw many agreements up in a way that protect… them. Well, there may be someone looking at screens and obliged to intervene if anything happens, but both of those activities are governed by so many restrictions that agency may feel safe doing nothing. As hardly anybody reads agreements thoroughly and understands their provisions, they are enlightened only when something happens, and the completely fictitious nature of that protection is revealed.
But this is just the tip of an iceberg. Why are these agreements drawn up this way? The cause is simple. Agencies do not have technical resources to ensure 100% protection. They usually use standard alarm systems with simple cameras of low technical parameters. They are so easy to bypass that this is just an imitation of security. Even if anything is recorded, nobody will be able to identify perpetrators on this basis, due to a poor quality of images from an ancient camera.
And then such things happen.
Siewierz, summer of 2021, an early Friday morning. Workers come to the construction site and cannot start work because there are no power tools. Despite the presence of a security officer and the installed wireless alarm system, somebody stole all power tools, worth several thousand zloty, during the night. The security officer said there was no alarm… and was truly surprised that anything had happen. The losses must be increased with costs of downtime that exceed costs of good security at the facility many times. The Contractor “saved” on the security, maybe eventually it broke even, but what if the thieves return, knowing how weak the security measures were?
August 2022, a construction site in Małopolska A heat pump and fencing panels, worth several thousand zloty, disappeared. November 2020, Józefów near Warsaw. Roof decking, a concrete mixer and other equipment, worth several thousand zloty, disappeared overnight. The police record hundreds of such incidents every year. And it is helpless, because cameras frequently record the picture of the incident, but the quality is so poor that nobody can be recognised. Often a standard alarm system reacts to the event, but with a delay, and when an intervention group appears, eventually, it can only spread their arms, helplessly. The police alarm that the number of thefts at construction sites has increased by several dozen percent in recent months. Criminals steal expensive machines, elements of building furnishing, as well as large quantities of construction materials, the prices of which have been rocketing, and there are problems with their availability.
But it does not have to be so.
The times have changed, and nobody is scared away by a plaque “security”, a fictitious monitoring by a disabled person, and small eyes of ancient cameras. However, the attitude of many people responsible for construction sites has not changed, when they look for savings on security that is ineffective, but simply must be there. Only actual losses in equipment and materials, and costs of downtime stimulate them to look for real protection, and not its imitation. While you could avoid those losses and be not concerned about them.
And how could it be?
Instead of cameras of poor quality, a modern visual monitoring can be installed at the protected facility, consisting of a bi-spectral (thermal imaging) camera, PTZ, and several Color Vu cameras with in-built power supply and independent communication system. Images from the system of cameras can be analysed in real time by an artificial intelligence system controlled by an operator, ready to react immediately to each event. The operator can surprise an intruder with a voice message at any moment, requesting them to leave the construction site, and in most cases this is enough to prevent theft. If this does not suffice, the intervention group reacts immediately. Each incident is thoroughly recorded and analysed, so afterwards it is possible to identify people and vehicles participating in theft and prosecute them. Welcome to the 21st century. Modern technologies enable us to foresee hazards and prevent them, and when necessary, they help us to find culprits and prosecute them. Of course, this comes at a price. Everything has its price. The question is whether the price of stolen equipment and construction materials will not prove to be too high, to save on the security hoping that this fiction will be more cost effective.
The modern visual monitoring described above exists and proves to work excellently. We called it SOVA (System Ochrony Video Audio – Video and Audio Security System). It cooperates with VIKI (Video Interactive Kinetic Intelligence) – an artificial intelligence specialising in discovering hazards at protected facilities. You do not need a security officer at a construction site, an Operator is enough, as with those systems they can see everything that is going on and react immediately.
The question is, how you will react to an information that your facility can be protected with the guaranteed effectiveness, and in a way that only ensures proper operation that protects an agency against customer claims, and not the customers against theft?
You can call or write to us, we will answer every inquiry.
