ISIO [International Security Industry Organization] and IFPO [International Foundation of Protection Officers] have endorsed AI for Security Criminology-Risk. They write:
The security industry enters the 4th industrial revolution by merging technology with manpower. All practitioners will be involved one way or the other with AI (artificial intelligence) and therefore need to know what it is, how it works and how best to get the most out of it. Millions of perpetrators are in a constant state of trying to beat the security system which is the technology and manpower. The vulnerability landscape is changing at a rapid rate because of assailants trying to conceive new types of crime, the methods to accomplish their missions, or copying and perhaps updating or improving criminal methods.
The practitioner needs to out-think the perpetrator; needs to use critical situational awareness thinking. This thinking process needs to comprehend intimately the full nature of the beast to select the appropriate technology and layer the manpower by skill-sets to limit the level of collateral damage. Based on the principle, ‘security success depends on the level of situational awareness of the people on the ground (decision-makers) and their reaction speed’, the practitioner can use a variety of technologies to avoid deadly outcomes. Reaction speed is vital when a person is detected lying motionless on the ground. The appropriate technology that can summon speedily summon the manpower would most certainly save lives.
Situation
Already, many are using in some fashion AI, be it the security officers on the ground, crime analysts and investigators. There are AI systems at border control protecting the perimeter of the entire country and controlling the inflow and outflow of people. Safer cities being upgrade with technology and new aged cities springing up with buildings so high that they are above cloud level that are being run and managed with the state-of-the-art technology. These cities and neighbourhoods all have video analytics that are in a consistent state of observation by watching for ‘predictable’ incidents.
AI and the pandemic
The lockdown got the IT people focused on the same goal in finding solutions from their perspective. The IT people ran onto the market making social distancing detection besides mask detection software. These do not serve much purpose for many reasons and furthermore can be dangerous if linked to a ‘sound alarm’ because panic can lead to deadly outcomes. AI being used in this sector do require IT specialists but also security, criminology-investigation professionals because both intellects are required to ensure the AI system is built for purpose. Reason being is because of the surge of crime, be it new crime or evolving copycat crime will be intensive because of many reasons related to the pandemic and the outcome of the pandemic being the economic meltdown.
There are many companies that have already purchased the bells and whistles but not getting anything out of it or, some are using technology that is frowned upon and some using illegitimate technology. They may go far as to lay the blame squarely at the software designers, but this is not the issue. The free downloadable booklet describes what is AI, how it works, and how to get the most out of AI. The principles and the formulas along with the scenarios give the users a method to conventionalise the framework to consider what technology and layered manpower by skill-sets are best suited for a project. This is because – security is not a one size fits all kind-of-thing.
The AI users must address and focus on their field of interest, but regardless in one way or the other, they must be aware of the current multiple threats in theatre because they more than likely will experience fallout from such. This talks the relevancy for this more important period. Budgets could be stripped to the bare minimum and the practitioners must make do with what they do have or altering a few objectives to ensure that their technology and layered manpower by skill-sets will be effective.
There are specific sectors where security investment must be done because their field of interest has shifted up the ladder of high value targets whereas they may experience incidents leading to deadly outcomes or perhaps suffer intensive financial losses. This is the time where transnational and local organised crime besides street gangs would grow in size due to the demand for specific goods that is at all-time high levels. Therefore, AI in all sectors where tracing and tracking of goods and people will grow in demand, besides increasing the need for alert notification technology so as to increase the reaction speed by responders.
And most importantly, there is essential software that is designed to seek out specific scenarios which could lead to emergency and medical support or other interventions that need to be implemented to save lives. For example, identify man-down which speaks for itself as an essential software. This moment in time must be considered in a different light. To illustrate the meaning of such would be like describing the difference between crime investigators and security investigators. Crime investigators are only summoned after the fact. Security investigators must find the crime or issues before the fact.
The objectives are to find a person of interest and then to determine if they are working on their own with others either voluntarily or under duress. It is suggested to use triangulation research which means using all intelligence gathering methods and investigation methodologies to bring all the information together to get the big picture. The AI user therefore needs to encapsulate security and criminology-risk knowledge besides knowing the motivations for crime and the methods used by criminals to find a person of concern. They then may need to use investigation or incident software methods of reporting and then to flag to identify incidents that will lead to finding a person of interest.
The booklet gives direction on the types of information resources to consider which could be technologies that can secure the evidence and provide proof of the fact. By identifying the pattern quickly and following the pattern, the investigator can then select remedies in the form of technology or skilled manpower to limit the level of collateral damage. In this way, the AI would machine learn – perhaps make programmed decisions and act or react (machine doing) besides using the human factor.
No practitioner living at this moment in time has experienced this form of multiple threats and practitioners in the future will always manage threats that others have ever experienced before. This is the time to equip one’s intelligence of the tools in hand and get to know and mix with like-minded practitioners.
The above and more is outlined in the booklet AI to view or print.
