Security firm defends surveillance cameras
Posted July 24, 2014 9:32 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – A security company is reassuring people of the West End that its cameras aren’t intrusive.
The cameras sit on a tower on Comox St. high above a construction site surrounded by apartment buildings.
Rob Baxter of Radius Security, which operates the cameras, says the devices can only point downwards.
“We make sure none of the cameras are looking at apartment buildings. As a matter of fact, the less we see beyond the construction site fence, the better for our system,” he explains.
That’s because the cameras are programmed to issue an alert when it detects someone in its view.
“It’s not that operators at our monitoring station are watching what’s coming into view. We use video analytics. Computers are constantly watching the site and they are designed to determine whether a human is in view.”
Baxter insists the cameras offer a benefit to the entire community, in preventing vandalism, and providing evidence to police in the event of theft on the site.
He says surveillance video from his company has resulted in 12 arrests in the last two weeks alone.
