Security Monitoring: Stew Leonard's Grocery Store

Case Analysis

Security Monitoring

Clifford T. Kinnear

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Physical Security; SCTY 410

I. Summary

Every type of building, from a high tech research lab, to a grocery store and even private residences can gain a physical security advantage utilizing CCTV video surveillance to guard against theft and break-ins. CCTV is a great tool for the security professional. It records everything on hours of tape. All that transpires be it; a routine day, a theft or robbery, arguments between employees, irate customers etc. But with all types of CCTV systems on the market one must choose what best fits their needs. As noted by Baker & Benny (2013) “ when considering the design and selection of a video surveillance system, the physical security designer, user, or integrator needs to consider the individual needs of each use case and market with which he or she is working” (p. 123). As in the case of Stew Leonard’s Grocery store, their CCTV’s systems includes 500 cameras! That is a lot of video to review for theft investigations. In the situation concerning the monitoring of the Innsbrook Resort residential properties, the security firm wanted to reduce the amount of false alarms that were occurring and the associated time wasted responding to them (Purvis, 2012, para. 12). In both cases, the clients

Stew Leonard’s; technology has come to the rescue in the form of video synopsis. As explained on the BriefCam website; “in the synopsis stage, a very short Video Synopsis is generated from these objects and backgrounds. The synopsis video can be very short, a few minutes can summarize a full day as objects are shifted in time, and many objects are shown simultaneously even though they occurred at different times” (“White Paper,” n.d.). In other words a short summary of what occurred. This allows the security personnel to find the theft event, thereby reducing the investigative/review time of the video