Four ways universities can deal with an increase in crime

According to a study by the United States Department of Education, crimes reported across college campuses in the United States reached a 15-year low in 2020. While this sounds like great news for campus security departments, it’s probably not.

The decrease in crime was likely due to the pandemic, stay-at-home mandates, and an increase in virtual learning. Furthermore, the more than 90% of colleges that returned to in-person learning this spring will probably see a significant year-over-year increase in crime compared to 2020.

Are campuses prepared to deal with pre-pandemic activity levels and the potential for increased crime? A new add-on to Milestone System’s XProtect^® Video Management Software (VMS) can help reduce video search time and improve investigations. XProtect Rapid REVIEW drastically reduces the tedious function of searching through video surveillance footage, often delivering results in just minutes. As a result, it can be an effective tool for colleges as they deal with the return to normalcy and increased campus criminal activity.

College campuses can record thousands of gigabytes of video footage a day. As a result, manually going through hours of footage to locate a person or object of interest can prove even more difficult than finding a needle in a haystack. XProtect Rapid REVIEW, powered by video content analytics platform BriefCam, uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) and deep learning to create searchable footage that recognizes and extracts objects. So whether it’s counting cars, people, backpacks, or line crossing, campus security can use XProtect Rapid REVIEW to create a customizable search and report results, sometimes in just minutes.

XProtect Rapid REVIEW enables fast and intelligent multi-camera searches based on an expanding suite of analytic search filters across multiple cameras so users can quickly find the evidence and information they need.

Users can customize a search from any or all of the connected surveillance cameras on the campus system and choose from among several identifying options: time range; type of object class; person attributes; color; size; speed; dwelling time; direction of travel; proximity; license plate recognition; appearance similarity; and comparison of facial features. Proximity, coupled with mask detection, are helpful options in a post-pandemic era.

Milestone sells licenses for Xprotect Rapid REVIEW add-on licenses per camera. This is different from most appearance search video analytics available from competitors. They will require users to buy a group of licenses. Milestone gives you the flexibility to add it to any camera you’d like – as few or as many as you require. Furthermore, you can use Rapid REVIEW with any supported camera – even the devices you already have installed on your campus.

Let’s say someone at ABC University assaulted several students, and witnesses say it was a male wearing a blue shirt, and they know he is a student. It’s easy to customize a report to pinpoint a male with a blue shirt. Since blue is a popular color, the search results might yield hundreds of potential matches from an eight-hour time frame. However, this suspected student will likely have a photo on file for an identification credential. Entering an image into the search could reduce results to just a few—or likely even just one—due to comparison of features.

The XProtect Rapid REVIEW Video Synopsis feature is a powerful visual display of results that simultaneously presents objects appearing at different times within the video. Video Synopsis results in a dramatically shorter video segment that fully preserves the viewer’s ability to analyze the scene, enabling a drastic reduction of review time. For example, if there has been an increase in auto accidents on campus with jaywalkers. Users can isolate the street area on campus to see how many students are jaywalking. In addition, users can see what time of day they most frequently violate pedestrian crossing rules and create a Video Synopsis that shows all jaywalkers from a single day in the image with timestamps on each individual.

Capturing images and identifying subjects is just one part of XProtect Rapid REVIEW. With the Case Management function, users can review, respond, and research by adding notes, collecting bookmarks, and building a report. This tool is beneficial for collaboration with law enforcement. However, other departments can use case management as well. For example, projects like traffic studies, parking lot usage analysis, stadium operations, and similar reviews can provide valuable data for making decisions. Using XProtect Rapid REVIEW for more than security can help justify affordability since it can benefit many campus departments.

Colleges and universities should maximize their investment in video surveillance by including the ability to reduce video investigation time with XProtect Rapid REVIEW drastically. Security departments can save labor costs by improving investigation times, eliminating the need to search through hours of footage, and reducing headcount or allocating staff to other needed areas.

Milestone Systems is a leading provider of open platform video management software; technology that helps the world see how to ensure safety, protect assets and increase business efficiency. Milestone enables an open platform community that drives collaboration and innovation in the development and use of network video technology, with reliable and scalable solutions that are proven in more than 500,000 customer sites worldwide. Founded in 1998, Milestone is a stand-alone company in the Canon Group. For more on information on education solutions visit this page.