For transit organizations, safety and security are a never-ending worry. On a typical day, public transit safety and security personnel are tasked with ensuring smooth operations of mass transit systems to move people, goods and services through their city or town. At the same time, they must be aware of any and all traffic or security threats that arise so they may respond and diffuse the situation as quickly as possible. When a city has a special event that draws a large crowd, transit organizations are taxed even more. Not only are they responsible for ensuring the safety and security of the public, but also that of any special guests that are in attendance. Simple problems like moving large crowds to and from venues quickly and safely, protecting dignitaries as they travel around the city, and assuring standard services continue to operate (including fire, trash collection, police response, etc.) are coupled with increased concern for terrorist attacks, public demonstrations and weather-related problems — making the protection of the public that much more difficult.

The smooth operation of the transportation system and its coordination with other city agencies is critical for any city. With technologies such as video cameras, video analytics and mobile technologies, coupled with existing CAD systems, road sensors, traffic control and first responder systems, cities have an extended array of tools they can use to implement and monitor security plans. The challenge is determining how to most effectively utilize all of that technology to best prevent and respond to security incidents and emergencies in real-time.

PHYSICAL SECURITY INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
Imagine a software system that accesses all your physical security devices and is able to correlate data, and then analyze and automate the response based on prepared business rules and policies for faster, better situation management. For instance, a chemical alarm, a fire alarm and a 911 call may all come into different city agencies at about the same time. The alarms could all be routed to a single system which correlates the three events and based on location and timing, determines there is one situation — a chemical fire at a ferry dock. It can then notify each of the agencies, send video images from the nearest cameras to the fire, bring up floor plans and street maps in the area, and communicate with the traffic control systems to help streamline getting first responders to the scene. Rules can be used to present the appropriate information to the appropriate systems and people to help resolve the situation quickly resulting in decreased response times, reduced false actions and more accurate information in the hands of responders where it is needed most to protect the lives of everyone on its highways and roadways. But what software makes this scenario a reality?

The answer is a rapidly growing technology category that marries physical security device management with the automation and reasoning capabilities of computing that has emerged to help public and private safety organizations — physical security information management (PSIM).

A PSIM system uses pre-packaged or user-written rules to determine there is one situation and presents the appropriate information to the appropriate systems and people to help resolve the situation quickly. For example, a suspicious car in the parking lot late at night may not set off an alarm, but in combination with a motion detection alarm near a rear door, the situation could automatically trigger the display of live video of the suspect near the door and recorded video of the car’s driver to see if they are in fact related. Leveraging this technology can decrease response time, reduce false actions and put responders where they are needed most to protect lives.

PSIM systems are able to significantly enhance public safety. By leveraging intelligent software, devices and networks — a combination of advanced video, wireless networking and smarter security systems — together reduce organizational risk and costs and enable real-time situation management in a cost-effective and automated fashion.

PSIM software systems provide a common operating environment to integrate, correlate and analyze data from traditional physical security devices and systems. They greatly enhance public safety by providing a more efficient pathway for information flow to decision makers and first-line responders, and provide a clearer model for identifying, managing and resolving a situation by providing actionable detail in real time. The goal of PSIM is to create unified security solutions out of piecemeal environments without “major surgery” on security infrastructures. By leveraging PSIM solutions, security professionals and first responders are more efficient and effective and, as a result, create a safer and more secure operating environment.