February/March 2016 • SECURITY TECHNOLOGY EXECUTIVE 43 www.SecurityInfoWatch.com
and security agencies are discovering that
the real danger of terrorism is represented by
homegrown "lone wolf " operators that have no
relationship to the Islamic State other than a
shared ideology.
It should therefore come as no surprise that
more and more cities are turning to the state
of the art technologies of video sur veillance
to help the authorities identify and track indi-
viduals suspected of criminal or terrorist activ-
ities. In fact, many cities, such as New York,
C hicago, and St. L ouis, have implemented
"Real Time Crime Centers" consisting of cen-
trally controlled and monitored networks of
fixed-location surveillance cameras placed stra-
tegically throughout their cities. Often these
systems feature advanced video analytics capa-
bilities to help their human operators identify
potential threats they would otherwise miss.
One of the most effective technologies for this
type of application is Automatic License Plate
Recognition (ALPR).
It is important
to note that a
fixed-camera
network with
ALPR-based
video analytics
also performs
well on a
smaller scale,
in any location
where physical
security is
needed. Some
of the best
examples
include
hospitals and
university
campuses,
as they are
very much like
small cities
themselves.