Mike Paul calls for standards to keep pace with technology
Visual remote monitoring is the single most important technical development to impact on the security industry at the start of the Millennium.

To the police, vast operational cost savings are available by only responding to visually confirmed alarms. At a recent conference, a representative from the Metropolitan Police reported that eliminating false alarms in their area alone could potentially save the force £17 million.

The benefits of visual remote monitoring to the end-user include: lowering site security guard costs while improving security standards and performance; preventing a crime before it occurs, thereby eliminating potential damage to a property and disruption to a business; and maintaining the highest level of police response by removing false alarms.

The insurance industry will also benefit from the reduction in claims due to the early detection and prevention of crimes - presumably passing on a reduction in premiums to companies using remote CCTV surveillance.

What’s more, the development of digital technology has provided the catalyst for remote monitoring centres to change their role from a purely reactive service to a remote management business. End-users can now use CCTV remote monitoring to check that contractors arrive on time and carry out their work properly, for instance.

With so much good news, the security industry should be preparing standards for the operation of central stations. But it will come as no surprise to many that technology in this sector is accelerating ahead of the introduction of operational standards, and procedures and codes of practice are being left behind. Remote monitoring system suppliers often recommend to end-users that they use a monitoring centre which is approved to BS5979 (for monitoring stations) accredited by NACOSS and fully endorsed by the end-users’ insurance company. But this is not enough.

Perhaps the greatest area of concern is the rapid growth in the number of remote CCTV monitoring centres operating today. This trend may satisfy the Prime Minister’s desire to boost enterprise, but these monitoring centres are operating a security service and should, therefore, be made to adopt operational procedures approved and audited by the relevant accreditation authority. Otherwise, standards will be compromised and security end-users will be exposed.

The security industry must now ensure that this type of technology does not develop a bad reputation, and that requires the insurers, police and the industry’s authoritative bodies to act quickly to protect the end-user.