Over the years, video has come to play an integral role in public safety operations. Public and private video surveillance has helped catch criminals and prosecute those who break the law on camera. And the demand for video is increasing, both from first responders and the people that they protect. Video is increasingly becoming an important tool for evidence collection and police accountability alike.

There are several different ways that video analytics can improve public safety.

• First, we have basic motion detection. Manually keeping an eye on cameras is a more challenging task than it seems. It’s hard to rely on human ability to stare at screens for hours at a time, and even after twenty minutes, a person’s attention span drops off. So it’s important to have the kind of technology that can detect movement and raise an alarm if there is activity where there shouldn’t be.

• And unlike motion detection, video analytics can be programmed to disregard uninteresting or irrelevant changes like cloud cover or blowing leaves. That means that when an alarm is sounded, it’s likely that something truly is amiss. False alarms can be dangerous, because the more of them there are, the more likely it is that the real thing will be treated casually.

• But video analytics can do more than simple motion detection. They can also read license plates and be set for even triggers. For instance, if the video picks up loitering at a certain time, that could be an indication of a potential crime about to occur. Video analytics can send an alert to law enforcement on patrol, so that they can arrive at the scene quickly and help prevent the crime or catch the perpetrators.

• Video analytics is also used when it comes to homeland security issues. They can identify when a suspicious object has been dropped in an area, or if a car has been parked in a high-security area for too long. These small details might be missed by human error, but with video analytics, the officers and public safety officials have a backup.

• And video analytics also help police and other organizations analyze huge amounts of video that they otherwise would have to go through manually, taking an impractical amount of time. Video analytics can focus on certain dates or patterns of behavior, and allow police to look at the video that’s pertinent to their work—and not the hours of video that isn’t.

• Analytics have also been used to keep traffic moving freely. Not just red light cameras, but also detection of cars stopped on the shoulder, or analyzing the patterns of traffic in high density areas—these all help keep traffic moving safely and efficiently.

If your public safety organization could benefit from upgrading its software and using analytics, then contact Kova today. Our public safety software solutions give government, public, and enterprise organizations the actionable security information they need to be effective in their emergency response, investigations, and analysis.