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The value of an established operator

In different communities, information is often held by key people who hold historical and community information that help the community to operate and keep safe. In some commercial organisations, these people are critical in keeping knowledge about clients and practices that contribute to the performance of the organisation. In smaller and old established residential communities, there used to be an old retired granny who used to sit on her porch and watch over the streets of the community. She was the person who knew everybody’s coming and going, what relationships were going on. When a stranger was in town, she would watch him like a hawk because he was unusual and did not fit in. This historical knowledge and awareness is equally valuable in established CCTV operators who are looking at various communities, whether the safety of a corporate headquarters, a warehouse, or a mining plant or factory.

The experienced operator gets to develop a comprehensive awareness of the environment they are monitoring that could take months to develop. Transitional periods in the CCTV environment where people are replaced with new operators, particularly where a new contractor is appointed and all existing personnel are replaced, can lead to appreciable performance decrements. What is removed along with the personnel is a comprehensive awareness of a range of things that happen in that environment and how things work. This will include who belongs there, the movement patterns in the area, the relationships between people, the hotspots, the entry and exit points that need to be monitored, high risk activities and people, the impact of times of the day, and even features of the environment that may look threatening or strange to some people but have come to be a regular part of that environment. Identification of regular transgressors also helps to pick up the potential for an incident to happen, or to link people together for intelligence purposes.

Beyond the rules

Operators use these inputs to guide them on what represents something out of the ordinary, unusual, and a potential threat. This knowledge goes beyond a knowledge of simple rules, procedures, and checklists to an intuitive knowledge of the area. Often an operator will realise that something is wrong, before knowing what the issue causing the problem actually is. Some of this knowledge can be gained from training programmes giving people information about the area and its functioning, but certainly not all. Further, the most common problem is the lack of training generally concerning CCTV.

I have mentioned in the past how casino operators receive extensive training on not only gaming conventions but the gaming table protocols. Often they are expected to know as much about the dealer activities as the dealers themselves. Yet this kind of operations input is sadly lacking in most operational environments. Most operators are expected to monitor activities they have never been trained to understand. As operators gain experience in the job, they also start naturally accumulating knowledge through observation, discussion, feedback and the occasional robust criticism or feedback from dissatisfied people. It is this knowledge base that becomes so difficult to replace when the person goes.

All in the mind

At times it is useful to introduce new people and methods, and shake up established practices that have got into a rut. This also provides an opportunity for new ideas to come through from within the operator ranks. However, this is a management function and stands alone from the knowledge accumulation of individual operators. Organisations need to appreciate that an operator’s historical knowledge and experience of an area can provide unique benefits. The better an operator can leverage this knowledge, the more successful they are likely to be.

Operators who have good observation skills, who actively question, who strive to understand the operational side in more detail, and who have the ability to put things in perspective will obviously be more effective. Historical knowledge and experience can greatly enhance these attributes, but is not a substitute for 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 +27 (0)11 787 7811 or [email protected]

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