Complimentary Securities: How Effective in Face of Emerging Security Challenges and Way Forward (Part 8)

Gbolahan Samuel Moronfolu

DRONE SECURITY

Drone can be defines as an “unmanned aircraft” functioning without the possibility of direct human involvement.

USES CASE FOR SECURITY DRONES

Facility Perimeter Control

Risk Assessment

Traffic Surveillance

Railway Surveillance (Read our complete guide to Drones for Railways)

Remote Area Inspection

Facilities Inspections

Antipoaching

Securing Large Infrastructure

BENEFITS OF DRONES FOR SECURITY

Cost Savings: The cost of a drone program is substantially less than other traditional methods of aerial imaging. There are important distinctions regarding the ultimate imaging requirements, but when considering essential unit cost, the differences are remarkable.

Remote Monitoring: Drones in security applications contain a unique ability to access distant and difficult to reach areas more quickly than hired personnel. This is particularly useful when staff security is limited within facilities such as large plant operations or areas containing expensive inventory at a distance.

Low Light Operations: The introduction of FLIR (Forward Looking InfraRed) and other night vision imaging utilities in addition to their reduction in price over the last few years has removed the limitation of after dark surveillance for security teams. Competitively priced drones come equipped with night vision optics allowing facility security to monitor darkened areas from a fixed location.

Quiet: Modern drones designed for security often include vibration dampening and brushless motors, cutting the noise levels to roughly half of sound other drones produce, which provides a clear advantage when monitoring is called for in response to intrusions at or around a given facility.

Rapid Response: Drone operation provides another substantial benefit when security personnel are called to respond to distant locations. Delayed response may allow an intruder time to exit a scene unidentified, resulting in loss and a missed opportunity for apprehension. Drone coverage in a fraction of time presents a much greater possibility of evidence gathering and potential arrest.

Return on Investment: More organizations using drones for security purposes are recognizing the benefits, and generally agree that the advantages outweigh the costs of upkeep. Security personnel are finding new ways to improve their department functionality and believe that drones hold a solid segment to the future of their industry.

DEMERITS FOR DRONES

It can only be used outside urban areas

it is very expensive

it cannot be used at close range

it cannot be used for small fast-moving targets

HOW DRONES CAN HELP

There are many ways drones can help enterprise security teams to manage their risk mitigation efforts more efficiently, safely and cost-effectively, including:

Risk assessments: Enterprise security personnel can use drones to find gaps and vulnerabilities that wouldn’t normally be seen, drone really changes the dynamic of how you position your security countermeasures.

Inspections: Security teams can now inspect and monitor roofs and other high places from the ground with drones.

Executive security: “If you have an executive protection team that’s operating in remote locations, they could potentially utilize a drone to do forward observation of routes and to identify any potential issues that are en route while they’re driving their primaries around,” Acevedo says.

Securing remote assets: If you’re trying to secure hundreds of acres of land or animals out in the pasture, drones are a great way to watch for poachers or predators. They can check on machinery, pipelines, wind farms and other infrastructure in remote areas.

Safety: A drone can usually get to a prison fight, an intruder and other potential problems faster than an officer can and assess the risk so personnel know better how to respond. Drones also have the capability to analyze images and use audio and video sensors to listen for gunfire, explosions.

Risks and Challenges of Drones: All of these potential benefits and advantages don’t come without their share of risks and challenges, especially when it comes to the complexities of enterprise security.

Data theft: Drones are also just as vulnerable to hackers and security vulnerabilities as any other Internet of Things (IoT) device is, whether they’re in flight or not.

Loss of control: This can happen either by someone hacking and taking control of the drone or from system failure or frequency interference. The potential for a hacker to use the drone for malicious acts is possible.

Collisions: Perhaps the biggest safety threat from drones is potential collisions with airplanes. “Even birds can take down planes, but unlike a bird, the drone doesn’t get chewed up so easily by the engine,” say experts. “These drones, because of the hardened materials on many of them and the velocity at which they move, can take down a passenger plane.” The most at-risk aircraft are ones that fly below 500 feet, like helicopters, agricultural planes and any aircraft that’s taking off or landing, says AGCS.

Limited battery power: Experts say most of the commercial drones can fly for 30 minutes and run out of power, however they are building charging stations where the drone can basically sit down on a charging point and charge itself and take off again, as there’s a whole industry of companies building chargers.”

Untrained operators: “There aren’t enough trained and certified drone operators to meet the demand today.

Analyzing data and data transmission: Many drones don’t have a signal while they’re in flight due to absence of Wi-Fi or cellular connections, so they have to use a lot of on-board processing and may have to fly to an area where there is a signal and can send the data.

Liability: Anyone operating an unmanned aerial system in a professional manner is responsible for consequences and needs to have liability insurance.

Expectations: Enterprise security leaders may want to jump on the drone bandwagon because it’s new, hot technology, but it’s important to know what you’re getting, as well as its limitations. You need to have some serious, realistic expectations as to what you’re going to accomplish. Sometimes you think a drone can do great thing and ultimately, it may not give you the data you need, say experts.

CONCLUSION

Having extensively exposed the readers to the rudiments, practices, methods, roles, merits and demerits of various organic and inorganic security systems available for the general public to interface, evaluate and patronize for their safety and other security needs. Most people based on findings, experience the challenges of insecurity by ignorantly assuming that “it would never happen to them”. It is indeed a costly assumption for any member of the public to make, considering the many challenges of internal security threats in various localities, regions and even at international level. With the exposure of so many Nigerians to some available security systems, it is hoped that this enlightenment and sensitization will assist individuals or organizations and policy makers to determine the best complimentary security system to adopt in their areas of needs which will help to block out all dangers lurking around them. It is believed that security exist when the individual or society is at peace; having social comfort through the privilege of domestic and public order. Note however that whatsoever compromises human safety and unlawfully endanger human lives erodes social comfort. In achieving optimum complimentary security performance, there is need for the managers of the various complementary security sectors to improve on and update their services to the public, in the face of emerging security challenges, by concentrating more on the following areas.

Education/training and retraining oriented to the development of professional pride in conformity with relevant laws, aimed at improving their service delivery mechanism.

Effective involvement of the community and other critical stakeholders in the development of complementary security system programs and policies for efficiency.

Adopting modern strategies/planning and procurement of modern communication equipment needed for optimum performance of their respective security arms

They should activate efficient methods for carrying out full range of responsibilities, by emplacing a variety of crime prevention skills and techniques, passive and active depending on the level of their operations (micro and macro security) in equipping their field personnel towards service delivery.

Developing transparency and trust, emplacing confidence in the public, in the discharge of their duties.

Improvement in the emolument and welfare of their field officers

Put in place mechanisms and grievance management procedures to address service failures.

Worthy of note is the fact that, government policies and decisions play vital roles in crime control, such as economic, social and political policies are very critical and germane to the welfare of the ordinary citizens. Well implemented people oriented policies are capable of curbing criminal activities in the society.

End note: I will like to draw inspiration from the statute of Winchester 1285, which reads inter alia:

The responsibility for law and order rested in each citizen

In each town, the citizens had to be prepared to act as watchmen at night to ensure that the gates of the town were closed, to detect and question strangers and handover wrong dowers to the Police in the morning.

Felons who escaped capture by the watchmen would be pursued by all able bodied men in a “hue and cry” led by the sheriff or other responsible officer.

Every citizen had not only a right to arrest wrong dowers but a duty to do so.

From the above outline, it will be better understood where we distinguish between policing and the police. Policing “is defined as a set of activities or processes aimed at preserving a social order or control, which can be performed by a wide range of groups and processes”. This is different from the formal organization called the police who on the other hand, are a formal bureaucratic and hierarchical and rank-based institution, which imposes strict rules of training and regimentation on its members.

In view of the above expository, which shows that establishment of the above complementary security system is basically to complement the activities of law enforcement and policing agents whereby the citizenry is mobilized to prevent and combat crime, this will provide the necessary internal security for developmental purposes and keep public at peace. The question craving for an answer today is: Has these complementary security systems been able to achieve the desired results? Your guess is as good as mine.

*Moronfolu is a seasoned security consultant with many years of security and policing experience. FELLOW, Fourth Estate Professional Society (FFPS), he has also partaken in peace keeping operations within and outside the country and has flair for general security education.