printer friendly version

Operational procedures and instructions

CCTV operators require clear operational procedures or instructions to monitor situations and respond to events or incidents that occur. This applies to control rooms that are monitoring on site, but even more so to remote sites where operators may not be aware of the local conditions or circumstances. Operational instructions give direction and certainty to an operator's conduct and response in various situations. Some companies have incorporated a rules-based system where actions on entering a risk area are listed and monitored by the operator as a standard procedure during routine monitoring, never mind critical conditions.

Instructions and procedures are the key things that can guide an operator's response to the alarm conditions in a way that the client has directly laid down and expects. Remote surveillance in particular requires clear and unambiguous operational instructions from clients in how to deal with various scenarios. At least within a local control room there is support and local knowledge. For remote monitoring in particular, when instructions are not clear it can result in confusion, inappropriate decision making, and in the worst scenarios, legal liability for the consequences that may occur. Instructions need to allow immediate on-the-spot decision making to allow resolution of an issue or a direct referral to an accessible and appropriate contact who can make such decisions. Despite the importance of instructions, they still call for an astute, objective and knowledgeable evaluation of the situation by the operator in order to determine what kind of category and nature the incident falls under.

Instructions should not be excessively lengthy, complicated, or ambiguous. In fact they should be trialled before finalisation to ensure that the procedure can be carried out in an appropriate fashion. Developing instructions calls for relatively high standards in terms of the client knowledge of such situations, clarity of responses, and writing of procedures or instructions. The converse of this is that the client can only expect as good a service as the instructions that can be provided to the remote monitoring operator. Also, there is still the possibility that an event that has not been considered could arise and an appropriate position needs to be established for such contingencies.

The control centre manager or supervisor needs to have the skills to ask the right questions of the client or department being serviced in order to ensure that the relevant situations that may arise will be catered for. At times the client may be a production department or a manager with no familiarity of security issues. Such clients need to be catered for to ensure all relevant areas are covered. A remote monitoring centre in particular needs to ensure that expert facilitation is provided to the client in developing instructions and procedures so that comprehensive but usable instructions and procedures are developed.

Poor instructions or procedures will reflect themselves in false alarm rates, inappropriate responses or call outs, or even worse, the inappropriate handling of incident conditions which can lead to serious loss. They will also lead to detrimental relationships as clients inside or outside organisations see a lack of delivery of service. Appropriate response instructions or procedures provide the basis for an informed, appropriate, and relevant service that will enhance the effectiveness of the control room operations and the welfare of the personnel working within them.

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 011 787 7811 or [email protected]

Share this article:

Further reading: