The electronic security company Secom plc has won another industry award – for a system with loss-prevention and personal safety possibilities for the retail sector, especially supermarkets and convenience stores.
Secom was selected from 12 finalists for ‘CCTV system of the year’ in IFSEC’s 2017 Security and Fire Excellence Awards. The company was also shortlisted for ‘Security project of the year’. Pictured, from left are: Graham Watt (Co-op Food), Minoru Takezawa (Secom), Jenny Alleyne (Co-op Food) and Alan Blake (Secom).
Minoru Takezawa, Secom’s managing director, says: “We have invested significantly in technology and skills to develop a market-leading solution for one of the retail sector’s greatest problems, and we are pleased that this has been acknowledged by our industry.”
The award, which excludes cameras and lenses, recognises the company’s work on an intelligence-led, 24/7 system to cut stock losses and improve in-store safety for staff and customers.
Central to the project, and key to the award, is Secom’s ROGUES system. The name abbreviates ‘Repeat Offenders Gallery Under Electronic Surveillance’.
In practice, operators in Secom’s Control and Command Centre trigger an alert whenever a known habitual offender or suspect enters a store. This automatically sends an image plus text detail to the relevant store guards, warning them that the person is operating in their area and providing them with ‘real-time’ details on the suspect’s clothing or other identifying details which enables them to be more diligent.
Minoru Takezawa says: “ROGUES is based on utilising real-time CCTV footage of shoplifting or incidents of violence. Our operators have various tactics at their disposal to help store staff deal with such security threats. ROGUES also helps our in-house intelligence analysts to study threat levels and patterns, which in turn facilitates greater efficiency in prevention planning.”
Secom describe ROGUES as part of its wider CCTV-based electronic security project being rolled out across Co-op stores. ROGUES alerts and Secom’s Control and Command Centre warnings to Co-op store managers and security guards about the presence of known suspects, as intelligence sharing multiplied across a retail chain’s branches nationwide, has major cost-saving implications, the security firm adds.
