Video Monitoring is Key to Security System Success, Strategy Analytics Says
Support for video-verified alarms is growing among security companies, insurers, and law enforcement organizations, according to research firm Strategy Analytics. “Smart Home: Disrupting the Security Industry” contends that the appeal of video monitoring is twofold: video-verified alarm systems allow viewers to observe crimes in progress and provide meaningful evidence from a crime event.
The report points to the Partnership for Priority Verified Alarm Response (PPVAR), an industry organization established to promote the benefits of video-verified alarms as well as the use of standardized protocols for video relay. According to the report, standardized protocols allow alarm companies to provide central monitoring station operators with video to accompany an alarm event.
When central station operators verify the presence of an individual who they believe to be an intruder, they can pass this information on to law enforcement personnel. The only drawback with the central station concept is that the operator may not able to verify that the individual is in fact an intruder without first confirming with the homeowner, who may or may not be reachable. Consequently, they may not be able to confirm that it is a true emergency event.
However, if the homeowner has access to the video through a self-monitored system, they may elevate the status of the call to a crime-in-progress, gaining priority status and producing higher arrest rates. And that’s why video verification doesn’t always need to involve a central monitoring station, the report explains.
Self-monitored solutions, which allow homeowners, renters, and designated third-parties to relay a video clip directly to authorities as verified proof of a crime in progress, can be even more effective. Typically, the CMS agent doesn’t definitively know whether the person in a video clip is actually an intruder or a friendly party who accidentally tripped the alarm; with a self-monitored system, that possibility is virtually eliminated.
While only a few police departments throughout the United States are equipped technologically to accept video directly from consumers, this is a trend that is beginning to pick up steam. “We expect that with the growth of self-monitored security systems, there will be a corresponding growth in the number of police departments and other legal authorities equipped to receive notifications including video verification directly from homeowners,” the report says.
“Video-verified monitoring can reduce this number dramatically, maybe even eliminate false alarms altogether,” he added. “The potential dollar savings, as well as lives, cannot be overstated.”
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