Key Benefits

Meet the Leader of Campus Safety at a Large Urban University

The University (name removed for security purposes) is a well known and regarded research institution, college and medical center, with over 15 colleges and a campus that spans more than 250 acres in size.

Keeping a campus of this size and diversity safe is no easy feat, but for nearly 30 years, the current leader of Campus Security has taken on the challenge. He oversees the campus police force that is responsible for the security of the entire campus. Over his tenure, he has become increasingly versed in the university's technological needs, particularly in security and surveillance systems, and ultimately chose Volt.ai for its innovative ability to address multiple security challenges on campus at once.

The Challenges of Securing a Diverse Urban Campus

Managing all aspects of security for a campus of the size and scale of this university is no easy feat on its surface; but add to that troubles with being able to maintain staffing levels and being the only police force focused on serving the area, and you have quite the challenge.

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The leader of the Campus Police department and his team have to manage campus safety, theft, medical emergencies, and are responsible for parking lot and campus monitoring across the entire 250 acre campus. Maintaining a large enough security staff has proved difficult, causing them to have to frequently rely on third party security providers when staffing is thin.

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Ultimately, the college found Volt.ai when looking at the most cutting edge technologies for weapon detection, but he had no idea of the breadth of solutions the software could offer, solving far more problems for him and his team.

Testing Solutions and Deploying Volt.ai

Ultimately the team considered numerous solutions like BriefCam, Omnilert, and Zero Eyes, but each fell short of the needs of the team (learn more about how Volt stacks up to other solutions here). They selected Volt.ai due to the algorithms used for weapon detection, and their highly accurate recognition of weapons in various situations without creating false alarms.

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"Volt’s software gave us the ability to recognize shape sizes, utilize bounding boxes, and allowed us to be more detail oriented in what we were looking for as a trigger, rather than just recognizing any object taken out of someone’s pocket like other solutions."

• Campus Security Lead

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In addition, Volt’s behavior analysis features provided significant value to the university’s team, going beyond the basic weapon detection offered by other solutions they were considering. Ultimately, after choosing Volt, the team implemented the system across hundreds of video streams on campus, including the most critical ones.

Real Time is Key: Campus Security Benefits from VOLT AI

As previously mentioned, the university got much more than they bargained for when initially looking for weapon detection. They found themselves benefiting from a whole host of valuable Volt.ai features that improve student life:

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Advanced Weapons Detection: They have been very satisfied with the primary feature they were originally seeking and have peace of mind that a weapon will be recognized in real time on their campus.

Occupancy Monitoring: Occupancy Monitoring: This feature allows them to monitor during off-hours, helping to replace the need to activate third-party security companies to do so.

Person Down Detection: Helping in medical emergencies, Volt's system has been able to alert the team to a person in need, like a man who had fallen in an elevator lobby, allowing for more immediate emergency management response.

Unusual Behavior Detection: The system can alert security to potential theft by monitoring areas like bike racks and scooter parking for suspicious behavior, the most common areas for theft on a college campus. This allows the incident to be caught in realtime, saving valuable resources from hours of investigative work.

Camera Health Monitoring: The team is able to keep the system running smoothly by being alerted when cameras go down, distinguishing between temporary glitches and actual failures.

Extended Dwell Time Alerts: This feature is particularly useful in parking areas, alerting security to potential issues at payment kiosks or attempts to damage gates, a relatively common occurrence that can be costly if not caught in realtime.

Behavior Analysis Without Facial Recognition: The ability to track behaviors and clothing descriptions without relying on facial recognition technology, which helps address privacy concerns.

"Volt has been a major contributor to cost savings for us because now we don't have to rely on third party security companies like we have in the past, plus it is helping save on theft and damage costs across the campus."

• Campus Security Lead

A Match Made in Campus Security Heaven

The university police team have been more than happy with their implementation of Volt.ai, realizing far more benefits than they originally expected, from crime prevention to cost reduction. Together we’ll continue to keep the campus safe and secure for years to come, continuing to expand coverage across all cameras on campus.

"Volt does what no one else is doing. The company, and the software, take security to a level far above what any other tool on the market provides.”

• Campus Security Lead

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