The lack of advice is mainly attributed to the slow growth of the urban security sector in Latin America, two guests from the region will explain the reasons why this sector does not show significant progress. By: Duván Chaverra A.
Many times ordinary citizens ignore that within the city where they live they are being observed and protected thanks to urban surveillance systems, which are located in strategic places and with "eyes" that allow continuous monitoring of people's actions.
The entities in charge of managing our Latin American cities have always found in electronic security an efficient means to protect or minimize the risks of any type of attacks or violent repercussions on their citizens.
But really today we can not hide that our region does not go through the best of times in the field of security, because crime and theft have increased in some of the countries and that, obviously has had a negative impact on both image and the feeling of protection of the citizen.
However, we seek to investigate whether this has meant an increase in the consumption of this equipment by government entities, if they have been concerned about massifying the implementation and installation of urban surveillance systems in their cities, to improve protection and have a more forceful record of the facts that are presented daily.
This is one of the topics that we will analyze in this article focused on urban security. We will talk about whether the difficult security situation in Latin America has somehow "suited" the manufacturers or distributors of the industry, in what has to do with an increase in the sale of the appropriate technology.
We will also present the recommendations of two officials of companies specialized in manufacturing and distribution of urban safety equipment, who will talk about the most appropriate systems, the analyzes that must be executed before acquiring a good system and will also offer some recommendations on the subject for end users.
Our guests are Baltazar Zúñiga, commercial director of TVC en Línea de México, and Diomar Carrascal, representative of Redes y Control in Colombia.
Initially we will deepen with our experts on whether it is true that the fact that there has been an increase in the figures of crime, violence and insecurity in their respective countries means that companies in the sector increased their numbers in sales.
Well, this does not seem to be true and in that our two guests agreed, the reasons: our government entities still do not give the necessary priority to this type of systems and according to the sources consulted, they are limited only to complying with the established standards. "I think not, and I think that due to the contracting processes, the procedures for the purchase by government entities is quite slow; this diverts the importance of urban safety equipment that is aimed at helping to minimize insecurity in our cities, and focuses them on the purely formal level and compliance with legal regulations for a purchase process, "said Diomar Carrascal.
For his part, Baltazar Zúñiga says that it is necessary to give more importance to the need for cities to constantly monitor the population, which can result in a much higher sense of security in the citizen: "I think the rate of violence has increased at a rate at which we are not prepared to counteract it. A higher level of awareness and understanding is required in our population to have an investment of time and money appropriate to our reality. In addition, the commercialization of safety equipment by distributors, integrators and installers, needs knowledge and continuous training to offer the systems capable of giving us "information" that help solve a problem from the root".
The sales figures are clear in the companies consulted, and that can be an indicator of the reality of this market for cities: they do not exceed 20% and growth expectations are not the best either.
For example, the representative of Networks and Control in Colombia said in this regard that "if the large cities and capitals of our region have not reached 40 or 50% coverage, I can assure you that the percentage that would be missing would be in the order of 50% in large cities and 70 or 80% in medium or small cities. Therefore, the market is still open to this segment, and in my case I expect to reach 20% in this sector."
While the figures recorded by the commercial director of TVC en Línea de México do not exceed 15%: "According to our sales and the information provided by our distributors (who are the ones who implement these systems), only 15% of the equipment we sell is aimed at the government segment and other entities interested in monitoring and urban security, such as TV channels, specialized Internet sites, etc."
Lack of advice?
This may be one of the factors why even the urban security sector has not grown in the way that manufacturers and distributors expect, therefore, our guests talk about the types of consultancies with which they work with the aim of expanding knowledge on the subject.
"It has been seen that the great weakness in this type of project is that they focus only on the business and not on the real need. Therefore, it is often said inside government offices that the projects did not meet expectations. And everything is due to a lack of advice," Carrascal said.
In the same way, Zúñiga explained in the following way his advisory strategy when offering the equipment for urban security:
"From my point of view and experience, I believe that the advice provided should cover at least the following five aspects:
1. Identification: this aspect answers the following: what is the need? What do we want to solve? For what? What are the expectations? What is the budget?
2. Selection: knowledge of the technology available in the market and sensitivity in the prices that can be obtained are required.
3. Implementation: it is the part that can be "touched and seen" the proposal offered. It requires qualified personnel for the installation, configuration and commissioning of the selected equipment.
4. Training and delivery: it is suggested to have official formats for delivery, training and signature of receipt from the client.
5. Maintenance: it is necessary to have periodic maintenance plans to ensure the stability and proper functioning of the installed equipment."
And after the advice the most important thing now is to select the best security system, here it is important to take into account some factors such as the type of sector in which the equipment will be implemented, for example, Diomar Carrascal says that depending on the need the investment is planned.
"From the outset we must place ourselves in the real need. For what purposes the system will be used: Police surveillance, traffic control, emergency control, speed of information processing, location and use of resources, links and reaction of protection or defense entities, anti-terrorist control; What type of attack can happen depending on the size of the city or some of these variables, to enter thus to suggest according to each of the cases and to unify technologies, "said Diomar.
He added that new technologies must already begin to be massively implemented, despite their still high costs, such as wireless connections: "In the projects of today and tomorrow we must think about new technologies such as Megapixel, encrypted video and data transmission, online biometric recognition, LPR, early warning system that involve the community locally and send the information to an evacuation system monitored and directed from a central. Mobile links, (from any police or emergency vehicle) anywhere in the city through digital technology"
Some experiences
Finally our guests shared with the readers the most recent experiences of installing urban safety equipment, although for prevention they did not reveal details.
TVC Online de Mexico briefly reveals how they conducted the analysis on patrols in a Mexico City.
"Recently one of our integrated delivered a project of 20 mobile video surveillance systems (mobile DVRs) for patrols in a city. In the public presentation of the project for the highest-ranking commanders, videos were randomly selected as a demonstration of the newly implemented systems. In one of these videos, real irregularities were detected that served as effective evidence for decision-making at that precise moment, which is one of the objectives pursued. This fact corroborated the usefulness and efficiency of the systems and authorized the expansion of the project to 50 additional patrols, that is, more than double the equipment of the original project."
On behalf of Redes y Control, Diomar Carrascal spoke about an analysis he carried out in a Colombian city.
"When I received the information from the technical specifications requested by the project management, I found that at this point they were requesting TVL cameras with 10X zoom, they would be used for traffic control and police control; the required software did not have any type of video analysis, nowhere in the project was thought of storage redundancy, in addition to that, after buying the equipment and awarding the project, the installation of the same was carried out 2 years later, due to the bureaucratic procedures involved in assigning each site".
And he added that "given this I see how many times government officials do not have enough information or advisors who understand the issue and / or are involved in our guild."
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