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THE V&A WATERFRONT, CAPE TOWN
The Victoria & Alfred Waterfront is a multi-billion Rand venture that attracts over 20 million visitors annually. Set beneath the grandeur of Table Mountain, the V&A Waterfront offers a wide variety of attractions and entertainment. The Victoria Wharf Shopping Centre houses over 240 specialty stores and the V&A Waterfront leases 100,000 m2 of commercial space to corporate clients who take advantage of the unique setting and the security on offer.
SECURITY CONCERNS
As much as the V&A Waterfront attracts local and international tourists, it also attracts petty criminals who take advantage of naive tourists and criminal syndicates who attempt to grab a slice of the millions of Rands exchanged annually. The most sophisticated and all encompassing security system is crucial to ensure the absolute safety of visitors, tenants and personnel.
For this reason, the V&A Waterfront holds safety and security as a top priority. The V&A Waterfront employs over 300 security guards who patrol predetermined beats, either in uniform or undercover. They are trained to assist with everything from directions to medical emergencies. Co-ordinating the security guards are 15 security personnel who operate, 24-hours a day, from a state-of-the-art control room. These personnel monitor over 800 CCTV cameras, strategically situated around the V&A Waterfront to ensure constant and complete coverage.
In January 2005, the V&A Waterfront partnered with a local software development company, Global Vision IT, to implement and customise its incident management software, GV Chase. GV Chase now empowers the V&A Waterfront security team to recognise, analyse, deter and respond to security breaches and incidents of criminal activity. Apart from GV Chase being utilised for security purposes, the V&A Waterfront have trained their security personnel to report any maintenance type issues whilst on patrol. All maintenance incidents are logged in GV Chase and are available to the maintenance manager in report form each morning. GV Chase therefore serves two purposes and has improved the communications and interoperability between two separate departments. This integrated IT system reduces the man-hours spent in administration and reporting of incident data. In fact, using GV Chase, security personnel at the V&A Waterfront are able to capture critical incident information in less than 10 seconds, which ensures rapid and appropriate responses.
A key feature of GV Chase is its mapping functionality which enables users to identify high-risk areas by providing security personnel with a detailed map of the entire Waterfront. This component allows areas to be mapped down to an unlimited number of locations, including individual shops and kiosks. Users are able to identify specific regions/sectors where there is an unusually high record of incidents. Because the capture of incident information is conducted in less than 10 seconds, management is able to respond “pro-actively”. An SMS component within GV Chase is designed to allow incidents to be prioritised according to their severity and automatically notifies and alerts predetermined individuals of the incident. Electronic incident capturing has assisted in providing a safer and more visitor-friendly environment, which in turn assists the bottom line of the shop tenants.
The V&A Waterfront is constantly finding ways of improving operations and as part of Global Vision’s philosophy to enter into lasting relationships with its clients, enhancements and new technologies are continually being incorporated into the GV Chase system. These includes the addition of an Asset Register utilising bar-coding technology as well as the integration of biometric capture for the unique identification of perpetrators.
THE USE OF RFID
In order to combat the risk of collusion, increase accountability and improve labour relations and trend analysis, further technologies were investigated and deployed on a “Proof of Concept” basis. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology was used to monitor security staff. This has resulted in better work performance as staff are held accountable for their actions. This is of paramount importance in an environment that relies so heavily on successful policing by the V&A Waterfront Security Team. More than merely a value-added benefit, the use of RFID will become a vital component of the security operation and deepen the V&A Waterfront’s ability to effectively police its businesses, premises and personnel.
Global Vision and its RFID business partner have decided to take a slightly different approach for this solution; instead of deploying a RFID reader network in its traditional form, the technology has been reversed to overcome a number of installation and financial issues. By utilising “active tags” in the place of fixed readers to establish a very finely meshed network, and utilising “portable readers” issued to security personnel, the “active tags” can be placed in virtually any location at a very low cost and without the need for any additional infrastructure.
By using this method, the radio and the reader unit are now “married” to the guard and as the guard conducts his/her rounds, their movements are tracked in real time by the portable reader as it identifies each tag. Every time the reader identifies a tag, a notification is sent back to the central control room and the position of the guard is automatically plotted on the map with detail such as time and date and a host of other information. On the spatial side, all tags are represented as dots on the maps. When a user moves their mouse over a specific dot, it will identify the guard and/or asset at that specific location. The RFID solution records the movements of all the security personnel in real time and will allow system managers to review the history of movement at any stage. An added benefit of the system is that it is completely web-based, allowing any number of users to view this information in real time or historically from any location. Not only will the position of the guard be determined and plotted in real time, but any other guard or asset in the range of the guards’ reader will be logged to the system as well.
HOW GV CHASE CAN ENHANCE SECURITY EFFORTS
I. Collusion
Collusion by personnel in criminal activity is a reality throughout the world. Millions of Rands are lost each year through theft made possible by insiders.
How can RFID help to uncover collusion? By recording snapshots of the location of security personnel at intervals of 5 seconds, security guards who suspiciously frequent the vicinity of a crime, staking it out prior to, or assisting during the incident, are exposed. While this does not conclusively prove collusion, it certainly does narrow the focus of Police investigation. Throughthe use of RFID mapping, the possibility of an early break in a case that would otherwise take a lot longer, is achievable. This is especially important to the V&A Waterfront where tenants pay a premium for security.
II. Labour Relations
The gathering of information in support of disciplinary action against non-performing security personnel is vital. The
Labour Relations Act requires procedural fairness in all disciplinary procedures and places the burden of proof of nonconformance
squarely on the shoulders of the employer. RFID is the most effective way to gather irrefutable proof of key performance area deviations by security personnel, recording absences from a pre-determined beats, or go-slows along the route. This is invaluable information, otherwise impossible to obtain, that will enable the V&A Waterfront to weed out ineffective security personnel in a legal, irrefutable way.
III. Accountability
RFID forces accountability as information is gathered automatically. A common problem is surveillance staff not wanting to report on other staff due to possible victimisation.
IV. Trend Analysis
Using advanced reporting, trends can now be identified using the vast amount of information available e.g. Incidents versus guards in sight or effect of increasing site visits.
Conclusion
The V&A Waterfront is one of Southern Africa’s most popular tourist attractions, playing host to millions of tourists from all over the world, each and every year. With this prestige comes the enormous responsibility of ensuring the safety of each visitor, as well as securing the property and lives of residents, tenants and staff. To address these needs, the V&A Waterfront has developed a sophisticated security system that constantly monitors activities. Responsibility rests
on security personnel who play a crucial role in the safe operation of the V&A Waterfront.
However, this responsibility is sometimes abused, resulting in loss of property and/or injury. In these instances, RFID
will provide a more effective method to monitor the security personnel and gather invaluable information to assist in criminal investigations or industrial relations. By enforcing accountability of the security personnel through RFID, the V&A Waterfront will be, without doubt, a safer, more secure place for visitors to enjoy.
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