03 Dec How to enhance your mobile patrol service with Virtual Blue’s Video Monitoring
For the past decade, roving patrol services have gained steam as a go-to security strategy for apartment communities across the country.
Roving patrols are provided by security guard companies and consist of a security guard randomly patrolling a property a certain number of times per night. Commonly, mobile patrol contracts consist of 1 to 4 patrols per night, and typically these patrols last roughly 15 minutes each.
Mobile patrols do provide managers with several benefits such as:
– Residents have a tangible sense of security
– Guards can answer after-hours calls from residents on an as-needed basis
– Services are inexpensive as compared to on-site security
But unpacking the true value of the security patrol service, let’s look at how much time guards actually spend at your community. If a property has a security company provide four 15-minute patrols per night, that equates to roughly 1 hour of security guard service each night. This means you could be paying roughly $80 per hour (at $20 per patrol) for security guard services.
Additionally, any on-site security officer is only able to be in one place at one time. If you have a 6-story parking garage and 6 different resident amenity areas, that is 12 different locations for a security guard to cover. And as the guard moves from one location to the other, that leaves the other 11 locations vulnerable. Let’s not miss that is a lot of ground to cover in a 15-minute patrol.
Virtual Blue – Intelligent Video Monitoring
Many of the downsides of mobile patrols come from the vulnerabilities or gaps in coverage the service leaves. Taking the 4-patrol per night contract, over an 8-hour period your site is only monitored for 1 hour. Meaning 87.5% of the night your site has no security. That doesn’t even take into account that the 12.5% of the night that the guard is there, the guard is only in one location.
Enter Virtual Blue’s Intelligent Video Monitoring. Virtual Blue combines analytics-driven video monitoring with human intelligence to remove the vulnerabilities security guard services provide.
By using your current cameras, our powerful AI consistently monitors your cameras and immediately sends videos directly to a Video Monitoring Operator when someone is present.
So, what does that mean? Well, when the suspect enters your parking garage to begin breaking into vehicles, the video feed is processed and already being viewed by one of our operators before they even touch their first vehicles. Ultimately, this eliminates the vulnerabilities that mobile patrols create.
Combining Forces – Intelligent Video Monitoring with Mobile Patrols
A hybrid security solution combines Virtual Blue’s Intelligent Video Monitoring with your mobile patrol service to enhance your on-site security strategy. As needed, your mobile patrol provider is alerted to suspicious and/or criminal activity. Now, a 4-patrol service can be reduced to 2-patrols per night because they become more targeted and efficient. This eliminates the vulnerabilities and ensures your security strategy is working to protect your residents and your asset.
Commonly, this combined service costs less than what you are currently spending on security.
Reach out to our team today to see if this makes sense for your site. We are happy to review your current cameras along with your current security service to make recommendations so your community doesn’t end up like these news headlines:
