it,” Cruit said. “Then the private sector takes a look at it and says, ‘Well golly, if they can do it, we can do it. We’ve got an apartment complex or a large facility and we want to make sure it’s surveilled.’ It’s a natural progression.”

Carey Boethel, vice president, business unit head for security

solutions U.S., Siemens Building Technologies, sees increased opportunity given the new trend toward security-critical infrastructure, much of it controlled by local governments. “Today we’re able to capitalize on a couple of different trends in the marketplace that we see occurring, including the continued spending in the critical infrastructure space. We can aggregate all these technologies, and we’re doing that from our command centers. We’re monitoring

critical infrastructure on behalf of municipalities,” Boethel said. “We’re also doing managed services from there, hosting access and video. The guard-tour scenario is something that we do every day … RMR is a by-product of that.”

Mike Hackett, CEO and president of St. Louis-based Hackett Security says the need for vigilance, especially in urban centers where many cities are revitalizing, is paramount. A rebuilt downtown does no good if

people don’t feel safe, Hackett points out. “In most cities you have most of the growth in the ring of the donut. The center is so built out that they go farther and farther out, but now we’re rebuilding on the inside of the donut,” Hackett said. “So we put cameras up in coordination with local business owners and when the cameras start to see a group of people … [the business association will] just make sure that they’ve taken the assets of the guard force

and deployed them around where the people are, while we alert the police. And when you’ve got police and lots of people watching what’s going on, if they’re up to something unscrupulous, they’re going somewhere else.”

Sargent agrees that citizens are continuing to realize the way to keep honest people honest and dishonest people away is to openly monitor their public activities. “There are still some people who are paranoid of ‘Big Brother,’ but the tide has turned,” Sargent said. “People who do not do illegal things have nothing to fear and look forward to a safer community. People who do illegal things should be fearful, and will move on to other areas.”

A recent case study released by ION identifies the challenges of securing America’s downtowns. Paramount, according to the release, is to efficiently and cost-effectively increase safety and security with limited security personnel in sprawling downtown areas. ION’s solution includes the use of VideoIQ, analytics-enabled video surveillance cameras throughout

i

“Today we’re able to
capitalize on a couple
of different trends in the
marketplace ... We’re
monitroing critical
nfrastructure on behalf
of municipalities.”

—Carey Boethel, Siemens

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the downtown core, which allows for prompt detection and notification of suspicious behavior, enabling guards to evaluate the situation and dispatch police immediately. “The public now accepts, and in some instances expects this. The municipality views it as the force multiplier. They can do more with fewer feet on the street,” Cruit said. “It’s already starting to drill down into the residential market.”

Security Industry Alarm Coalition director Ron Walters feels a time is coming where the industry and municipalities will work more and more closely together. “I believe that the future will be the industry uploading video to the 911 folks,” Walters said, noting APCO and the CSAA had recently worked together to pass a standard to allow direct digital communication of dispatch info between the security industry and police.

While these municipal installations have been largely closed to RMR opportunities, cities and towns will increasingly represent long-term customers who expect a partnership with private security companies. The successes, or not, of these early relationships will likely shape the future market. SSN