Public Safety
Through the SIA Public Safety Working Group, SIA develops recommendations to improve the safety, security, and sustainability of cities and communities using technology. SIA serves as the voice of the security industry in appropriate adoption and deployment of security tech alongside active practitioners in police, fire, emergency medical services and other disciplines.
Securing Mass Gathering Events: A Simple Design Framework That Considers the Air Domain
Planning and executing a mass gathering event is challenging, requires extensive coordination and can be time-consuming – it is also one of the most important security and safety actions you can take when it comes to protecting the public in dense crowd environments. Properly setting the conditions for a secure and safe outcome should always be…
Keep Reading »How Mass Gun Violence Trends Should Inform Physical Security Planning
If you want to add ballistic protection to your campus, facility or office, understanding gun violence trends can be helpful for identifying the type of protection you need. Ballistic protection is one of the most important investments you can make, and it’s too easy to make decisions based on fear or “gut” decisions rather than…
Keep Reading »How External Illumination Benefits License Plate Recognition
More Light Equals Improved Analytics Invented in 1976 at the Police Scientific Development Branch in Britain, automated license plate recognition (ALPR) represents one of the first applications of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. At the most basic level, ALPR systems capture an image of a vehicle’s license plate and transform the picture into alphanumeric…
Keep Reading »Using Crowdsourcing to Secure Events
Deployment of a reporting app can vastly increase situational awareness, responsiveness Now that the event industry has rebounded from the COVID-related downturn, the landscape of in-person events has changed significantly. Festivals, sporting events, concerts, exhibitions and conferences all look and feel much different than they did before the pandemic. Not to mention that horrific instances…
Keep Reading »California Enacts Unique Video and Audio Surveillance Requirements for Firearms Dealers
The latest in California’s comprehensive approach to laws aimed at gun violence prevention is Senate Bill 1384, which was signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom on September 30, 2022. This particular measure seeks to prevent unlawful firearms sales and reduce gun violence as well as aid law enforcement investigations by creating digital surveillance requirements…
Keep Reading »Event Report: SIA’s Capitol Hill Symposium on Perimeter Security
Government and industry met to identify challenges in hardening of facilities and public spaces At the Security Industry Association (SIA) Capitol Hill Symposium on Perimeter Security in Washington, D.C., on October 27, 2022, industry and government connected to explore threats to safety and the share information on the evolution of technology to secure facilities and…
Keep Reading »SIA Practitioner Insights: Stadium Security Report
In this special report, get end user perspectives from the stadium and venue operations industry on security technologies, plus analysis of current and emerging risks.
Keep Reading »U.S. States and Cities Rethinking Bans, Setting Rules for Law Enforcement Use of Facial Recognition
On April 27, 2022, a bill was enacted in Virginia to replace the state’s complete ban on local law enforcement use of facial recognition technology with a comprehensive set of rules for its use. Virginia is only the latest and largest jurisdiction where policymakers are rethinking blanket bans and seeking to establish guardrails ensuring the…
Keep Reading »Leveraging AI for People Screening: Millimeter Wave Tech and Deep Learning Can Produce Effective, Automated Virtual Searches
Despite advancements in security technologies across nearly every industry, options for screening people have largely remained the same for more than a decade. People screening for loss prevention, data center security, high-value manufacturing, event security and other use cases generally relies upon low-tech and personnel-intensive measures like physical searches, pat-downs and metal detection systems. Some…
Keep Reading »Examples of Successful Use of Facial Recognition in Virginia
As demonstrated throughout its 30+-year history of development, facial recognition technology offers tremendous benefits to society when used effectively and responsibly. The benefits of facial recognition are proven and growing, through a wide range of vastly different applications. For example, in the United States, the technology has been used for more than a decade to detect…
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