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The unseen barrier: AI and perimeter monitoring

Perimeters have been one of the most important aspects of security since antiquity, but what does perimeter monitoring look like in the age of AI, CCTV, thermal detection and modern off-site surveillance? It has become unseen, but more powerful than ever before.

Why perimeter security is essential:

• Early warning: Establishing a solid perimeter monitoring setup is critical to giving you one thing you cannot directly buy: time. It gives you time to react to the unfolding situation, gives first responders time to get to your site, and expands the time it takes for would-be criminals to reach you or your site’s property. In conjunction with audio challenges, tech-enabled perimeter monitoring can create layers of threat detection and active deterrence.

• Easy focal point: As a threat deterrent method, having an imposing fence line with CCTV cameras is a great passive security measure. It also provides a physical barrier for trespassers to focus their attention on while alternative tech-driven methods work their preventative magic.

The most common perimeter security and issues

Most facilities have some combination of chain-mesh and electric fencing, guards, and CCTV cameras. Each of these have their flaws, which can be alleviated through technological innovations.

Physical infrastructure can be damaged, scaled, evaded, or bypassed through targeted attacks at entrance points or vulnerable areas such as back-alleys and loading docks. Electric fencing can be cut, damaged, become weather beaten, or become affected by prolonged load shedding. We have had a good run this year, but it is still undecided if the power is here to stay.

Manned guarding can be costly, can be corrupted through force or collusion, and human attention spans are limited. A guard in a guardhouse staring at screens, hoping to catch something, is an ineffective method.

Regarding CCTV, if it is managed in-house without having an external offsite monitoring company verify the alerts received and escalate appropriately, it is only good for post-incident analysis.

The unseen barrier

AI has an unbelievably quick response time. When tracking Verifier’s response times, we track them in average seconds, not average minutes or longer, like an average armed response callout.

AI is quick, but also effective. An AI monitoring platform can be on 24/7 without losing attention, unlike an overworked guard working the graveyard shift. Black-screen monitoring allows human verification once an AI has pre-vetted the alert to reduce overactivity and the load on human security personnel. Through extensive and ongoing training on a number of pre-loaded detection categories, AI systems can alert a human operator to a potential alarm trigger with pinpoint accuracy.

Expanded definition of perimeter monitoring

Verifier proposes that the security industry consider perimeter security in an expanded term. As technology develops further than threat deterrents or threat responses, we are in an age of threat prevention or even threat pre-emption. Through the use of licence plate recognition (LPR), facial recognition, IoT-related sensor triggers and more, all integrated into advanced AI systems, facilities managers have a far more expansive system to work with.

Through shared databases (national and local), aspects of perimeter monitoring can be effectively spread to all of your properties, casting a much wider security net. AI can be set for ever-expanding inputs, including crowd formation, unusual activity (running, fires etc.), giving you layers of adaptive security inside and outside your site’s boundaries.

Through invisible security methods like establishing virtual boundaries to effectively add pre-layers into your existing perimeter structure, you can rest assured that your perimeter is more extensive and expanded through the use of AI and technology than ever before.

How AI prevents false alarms, but catches real alarms

• Would you rather have a system that is too sensitive, or under-active?! While AI systems have incredibly accurate track records (some systems have over 98% accuracy rate), they may create false alarms. The difference is that through the combination of AI and offsite monitoring, the uncertainty factor and annoyance of having to personally investigate your site’s security system is effectively mitigated.

• AI systems can be trained to ignore foliage blowing in the wind and animal or pet triggers, which are most of the false alarm triggers in a domestic setting.

• Ultimately, your security is only as good as the settings/SOPs established. At the least, an AI will not defy logic or instruction and do something unpredictable, unlike manned security. If your site is well maintained and effectively integrated with a quality AI system, you are guaranteed greater accuracy. By being able to set and adjust tight SOPs, an AI system will ensure that events are properly escalated.

You can leverage the ‘unseen barrier’ created by AI verification services for effective strength balancing through the combination of physical barriers, electronics, independent monitoring, and a solid response/tactical team. AI is an added layer, an accurate set of advanced and varied systems constantly on the lookout for numerous activation triggers. With appropriate SOPs, facilities management, and operationalisation of the technology on hand, you can take your security to the next level and leave the legacy of false alerts in your wake.

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