Automating Security Surveillance in Prisons and Law Enforcement using vision AI

With the advancements in computer vision technology, it is now possible to automate security surveillance. Enabling CCTV systems to offer more utility than ever before. Automated security surveillance can provide many vital tools for prisons, police departments, and correctional facilities to assure the safety and security of inmates and correctional staff.

According to a study, 19% of all male inmates in US prisons say they’ve been physically assaulted by other inmates. 21% say they’ve been assaulted by prison staff.  It is for instances like these that video security surveillance (like CCTV surveillance) becomes an essential tool — to ensure the safety of inmates and workers and mitigate security challenges. But the question of the hour is  —

How efficient are CCTV systems in facilitating a secure environment?

CCTC infrastructure can help departments to Monitor inmates’ daily activities, monitor for suspicious activities, monitor staff behavior, etc. The bottleneck is that a human needs to stare at multiple screens to monitor these activities. As the area of the premises increase, obviously, the number of CCTV cameras increases and correspondingly, the number of offices required to monitor the video streams from all these cams. Moreover, with a limited attention span, surveillance officers would fail to notice many suspicious events.

While video surveillance is a must-have system for prisons, it is today just as good for collecting evidence after a mishap has occurred. Without proper systems, in place and timely insights, the benefits of video surveillance are rendered useless. Moreover, sometimes despite having the required data, prison staff may not be able to take preventive measures due to false alarms and delayed alerts & insights. This is where an advanced video surveillance system powered with AI and offering real-time video analytics comes in handy. 

What is an AI-powered Video Surveillance System? 

An AI-powered video surveillance system uses artificial intelligence to identify irregular patterns in inmates, alert the authorities, and manage and safeguard prisons. These systems can analyze data from images and videos of video surveillance systems to recognize normal vs. suspicious activities and immediately send an alert. Through this, they fill in the gaps left by traditional video surveillance systems and provide smart monitoring of inmates coupled with behavioral data that can be used for safety and correctional measures. For example, the video below shows how such a system can automatically detect anomalies such as robbery, fighting, shooting, assault, etc. 

1. Enhanced coverage with smart surveillance

AI-powered video surveillance systems can analyze with an impartial view of all video streams from all CCTV cameras simultaneously. Such systems can recognize humans from various angles and can detect intrusions with high reliability.

2. Real-time preventive action

One of the best features of AI-powered video surveillance is real-time video analytics through which preventive actions can be taken on the spot. Through accurate alerts, breach reports, and alarms, police officers and guards can act instantly — helping them prevent security and other threats. 

3. Facial recognition technology

Through facial recognition technology, AI-powered video surveillance is able to identify individual inmates and recognize them. This is important in the prison-scenario where inmates wear similar clothing with similar colors. This enables the prison officials to consolidate personalized databases of inmates and get customized analytics for each inmate.

4. Inmate tracking

AI-powered video surveillance systems are efficient in tracking moving objects and understanding whether a situation is normal or suspicious. They help in monitoring queues, identifying geographical locations where an inmate should and should not be present, and effectively storing inmate data that can be retrieved easily during investigations.

5. Behavioural analytics

The use of machine learning helps AI-powered video surveillance systems to understand the behavioral patterns of inmates and even prison guards. Through this, changes in an inmate’s behavior can be detected and used to uncover potential suspicious or harmful activities, way before the event takes place.

Through AI-powered video surveillance systems, prison officials can monitor inmates and prison guards in real-time through inmate tracking and intelligent surveillance. Moreover, they can understand the behavioral pattern of inmates and use facial recognition technology to effectively save data of each inmate. Video analytics helps them uncover any type of security threats and detect suspicious activities. And with the help of real-time preventive measures like alerts and alarms, they can take immediate action, without wasting a second. Today, when prisons are overcrowded and staffs are limited, AI-powered video surveillance systems prove to be a great support for monitoring and safeguarding the prisons.