Here are some responses to a recent Security Beat e-mail poll asking, “Are surveillance technologies good enough to deter shopping mall incidents?” We posed the question in response to headlines in late January about a brawl between two teen-aged women at a mall in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
“After having been a mall public safety supervisor for three and a half years at a Class A retail center in Indianapolis, I can say that complex video surveillance systems do absolutely nothing to deter violence among any one age group. At my center, we had ‘persons with gun’ calls, countless fights, and gang turf ‘wars.’ The only thing that video surveillance provided was the ability for our center to provide evidence in criminal cases sought by victims of theft, vandalism or violence. Luckily, none of these incidents resulted in any bloodshed, but that was mainly due to a high level of training by the security personnel and the continual vigilance by our local police.”
— JAMES ESSEX, Indianapolis
“Surveillance technologies tend to make one think of equipment. If the human mall surveillance monitors aren't as well trained as their Las Vegas casino counterparts, then the equipment cost would be wasted. I doubt if many malls would be willing to incur the initial outlay for a full-blown casino-type surveillance system and even further doubt their willingness to pay decent salaries for well-trained monitors.”
— CARLRAMER, Cape Canaveral, Fla.
“All of the electronics in the world will not do you any good if you don't have two things: Well-trained personnel and well-written procedures for monitoring and response staff. It does no good if you can catch them on tape if your people do not know how to react quickly and correctly.”
— W.B. CRIMMINS, San Diego
“When dealing with emotions, all bets are off; especially juvenile emotions. Most incidents of violence of that type are not planned, but happen instantaneously. It happens in the physical presence of both security and law enforcement officers. So, why would we think security cameras or any other type of technology would deter such an incident?”
— MAX JOHNSTON, Everett, Wash.
“Training is the answer. We strive to make systems more automatic and less dependent on human action or interpretation, but somewhere along the line it takes a knowledgeable human to make a decision. That is not a minimum wage responsibility.”
— R.C. AMUNDSON, Oakville, Wash.
Your opinions are very important to us at Access Control & Security Systems. To offer comments or suggestions, please send an e-mail to editor Larry Anderson at landerson@primediabusiness.com. Please be sure to include “Letter to the Editor” in the subject line. Readers may sign up for the weekly Security Beat e-mail newsletter by visiting www.securitysolutions.com
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