Viseum says ‘no’ to more CCTV cameras

Calls for more security can be answered by IMC upgrades to existing cameras

High tech company Viseum, specialists in IMC (Intelligent Moving Camera) technology is making the surprising announcement that the UK does not necessarily need more CCTV cameras. Instead, the company is calling for existing installations to be used to their full potential, by upgrading existing cameras to turn them into IMCs and thereby cut long-term costs and cut crime more effectively.

Recent reports in the press have criticised the ‘ineffectiveness’ of traditional CCTV cameras and with calls from civil liberties groups highlighting the case against cameras, you could be forgiven for thinking that the days of CCTV were numbered.

What these reports have failed to mention is that tarring every type of camera and technology on the market with the same brush is misplaced, when some CCTV cameras like those driven by IMC technology from Viseum are delivering stunning results in every location in which they are installed, helping the public to feel safe, catching more criminals than ever and in today’s cash strapped world, keeping costs down.

The success of the Viseum IMC is not down to more cameras, but by the development of patented technology that can be incorporated into any CCTV camera or scheme. This sophisticated technology ‘trains’ the camera to spot criminal activity automatically, without the need for any human intervention, thus alerting the control room operators to a potential crime as it is occurring. In the early days, cameras were simply installed, without too much thought going into the people, processes or technology that would be required in order to deliver tangible results.

This point has been acknowledged, by among others, Detective Chief Inspector Neville of the Met police’s CCTV unit: “Because we had CCTV first, we made all the mistakes. And the mistake was to spend [money] on kit, but don’t spend it on people or processes and that’s what’s gone wrong. Let’s invest the money that’s available for the training of people and the processes to make sure that what we’ve captured is effectively used.” 1

Stuart Thompson, Viseum’s Managing Director and inventor of the IMC technology, said: “Detective Chief Inspector Neville is right and his observations reflect the reasons I developed IMC technology in the first place. Having thousands of CCTV camera’s is useless unless they are manned by trained staff, coupled with technology capable of detecting crime as it happens and drawing the operators attention to it. By focusing on the processes and technology involved rather than hardware , our cameras have been proven to help CCTV schemes capture 25 times more useable evidence than any other manned solution.”

Another spokesman for the Met said, “We estimate more than 70% of murder investigations have been solved with the help of CCTV retrievals and most serious crime investigations have a CCTV strategy.” 2 The latest technology from Viseum is helping to improve these figures and of the 10 field installations where the latest Viseum IMC (Intelligent Moving Camera) deployments have been publicised, the intelligent multi-tasking cameras have made a significant impact on crime statistics.

“It is a paradox, but Viseum can agree with those who say we may have too many CCTV cameras, because to call for more, or at the other extreme, calling for all CCTV to be scrapped both miss the point,” continued Stuart. “The solution is not necessarily more or less CCTV, but effective technology installed in the systems we already have. By focusing on technology, we reduce the need to spend capital on hardware, which is going to be an important consideration in the coming years when budgets are likely to be tight.”

Viseum should not be seen as a replacement for human involvement, or as a means to more cameras, but as an innovative means to provide protection to large numbers of open space problem areas, utilising existing hardware in the most cost-effective manner.

To find out more about Viseum and potential cost savings, visit www.viseum.co.uk