Remote CCTV monitoring is a vital part of security for businesses, commercial sites and households across the UK. It helps to protect sites from criminal and environmental damage, even the risk of fire.
However, every so often our security operators also play an important role in protecting communities in general – especially vulnerable individuals. For example, Farsight operators helped to secure a site and identified a youth police were concerned about in this incident. And another incident recently highlights that role even further…
The incident
On the night of the 22 March 2015 Farsight operators helped police to find an elderly woman at great risk – both returning the lady to safety and saving police a huge amount of time and expense.
In the early hours of the Sunday night, at 01:08, operators received an alarm from a car forecourt site in Stockport. As high risk sites, car forecourts require extensive security to ensure the cars do not become the victim of criminal damage – particularly overnight when the showroom is unattended.
However, in this incident criminal damage wasn’t a concern, but the welfare of an individual was.
Farsight operators rapidly responded to the alarm at 01:08 and identified an individual on the car forecourt. The individual was attempting to gain access to one of the vehicles.
Farsight operators immediately issued an audio warning to the site making the individual aware that they were being monitored by live CCTV.
When the individual showed no sign of leaving, the operator swiftly called the police less than four minutes after receiving the first alarm. The operator also called the key holder for the site to make them aware of the incident.
The police were quick to respond and arrived at the car forecourt soon after operators had made them aware of the incident.
The result
The police later updated Farsight. They explained that the person our operator noticed at the car forecourt was a lady in the late stages of Alzheimer’s. She had been missing for approximately six hours, and was extremely vulnerable. As a result both dog and helicopter police units were searching for the lady.
The officer managing the incident told Farsight he was very happy with our actions, having helped to return the lady to safety and having saved the police a lot of time.
It’s incidents like these ones that show just how important remote monitoring can be. Not only do operators secure a high-risk site, they also ensure that an individual was returned to a safe environment and helped police. As a result, it’s clear that remote CCTV monitoring has a very important role in ensuring the security and safety of communities and businesses.
