QIC implements public safety solution

Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) was established by the state’s government to manage its long-term investment responsibilities. It delivers asset solutions across infrastructure, private debt, private capital and real estate, including management of 24 shopping centres totalling close to 1.3 million square metres in gross lettable area throughout Australia.

As the manager of many large shopping centres across the country, QIC invests substantial time and resources into creating safe environments for its retail tenants, workers, customers and visitors. This focus on safety came to the fore following the onset of COVID-19, during which time Australian shopping centres began to witness a significant increase in self-harm incidents.

In response to this serious industry and social issue, and a specific self-harm incident that occurred at one of its centres in 2021, QIC spearheaded a new safety program called Project Safe-Guard. Involving a bespoke solution for a highly targeted use case, Project Safe-Guard is designed to significantly reduce the likelihood of self-harm and security breach incidents at QIC’s shopping centres.

The project utilises surveillance technology to detect unusual activity by individuals who may be in danger of self-harming or gaining unauthorised access in high-risk areas, such as internal and external high voids, car park ramps and service tunnels. This detection capability enables greater opportunities to reduce and prevent such incidents from occurring, while helping QIC to protect its assets.

Making safety surveillance smart

Already claiming fleets of Axis Communications network cameras in its shopping centres, QIC turned to a local Axis partner, PMT Security Systems, to help implement the technology needed, starting with a pilot site at Robina Town Centre, a shopping centre complex on the Gold Coast in Queensland.

“This was an opportunity to look at and assess a shopping centre for different types of risk, and I included other things beyond self-harm,” said Deb Palmer, National Programs Manager and Project Safe-Guard Project Lead, QIC.

“We looked at misuse of places like car parks, and people entering high-risk areas, and vulnerable areas. At some centres, there are open mall style entrances that are unable to be closed after trade.”

Being a large centre comprising five multi-level car parks and more than 350 stores, Robina Town Centre has large areas that require monitoring by network cameras and the 24/7 security control room at the site, with additional support by security guard foot and vehicle patrols.

PMT Security, Axis Communications and video management system provider Milestone Systems collaborated to develop a solution designed to identify high-risk areas within the shopping centre, guided by historical incident reports and a self-harm audit tool designed in partnership with Lifeline.

For the solution to deliver on anticipated outcomes, it required surveillance technology that could cover wide areas and provide detailed, accurate data. By employing Axis products such as the D2110-VE Security Radar, which has a 60-metre range with a 180-degree field of view, and the Axis Q6135-LE PTZ Network Camera for visual identification of incidents, QIC was able to minimise the technology footprint requirement while realising operational goals.

Other Axis solutions that were utilised in the solution included Axis network cameras with deep learning capabilities, which were employed in multiple locations around the centre in areas where a specific field of view was required.

Ruling out risk

Employing the existing Milestone video management system that was already installed at Robina Town Centre, QIC, Axis and PMT Security worked together to establish business rules for the new camera and detection device footprint to alert security team members in the control room of unusual activities at certain times and in certain locations.

“We already had existing, fairly new Axis PTZ cameras with pan, tilt and zoom capabilities for wide-area coverage in Robina Town Centre’s car parks. With this solution, we continued using those PTZ cameras, but added some Axis Security Radars to the mix to deliver more of the full benefits from the existing camera fleet,” Palmer said.

“Many cameras stayed put or moved position for better analytics outcomes. However, if a camera was out of date or couldn’t handle the analytics we needed from it, it was replaced and repurposed.

“We are only using the analytics technology in areas of high risk. The rest of the cameras are still being used in the same ways they were previously,” she said.

The capacity for the analytics software to work with specific business rules was important to ensure minimal false positive alerts, as this could help to avoid undue workload and fatigue for security personnel.

Thanks to the capabilities of the Axis camera and sensor fleet, such as virtual tripwires, highly prescriptive business rules could be programmed into the Milestone system to ensure most alerts were triggered by genuine incidents.

Reclaiming control

Since the implementation of the Axis camera and sensor system at the pilot Project Safe-Guard centre, security personnel have been alerted to, and have been able to prevent, at least two potentially fatal self-harm incidents.

More broadly, the pilot centre has seen a significant reduction in various incidents going undetected, with security teams now able to respond proactively to security breaches in high-risk areas as they happen, helping to prevent the occurrence of facility misuse, including illegal access, loitering and bad behaviour.

Additionally, the new technology has helped Robina Town Centre secure the open-air mall area that was previously difficult to secure after hours. Thanks to the highly accurate virtual tripwire capability of the Axis network camera fleet providing coverage of the mall, security personnel now have a greater ability to actively monitor the area and prevent its potential misuse by unauthorised visitors after trading hours.

Most importantly, the increased visibility provided by the Axis network camera and radar fleet means security controllers are now able to see things that they previously couldn’t see happening. This factor has supported QIC’s high-level goal of making sure its shopping centres are safe places for people in the community, even out of hours.

For security personnel, the Axis camera and radar fleet has helped to alleviate the potential emotional stress that can sometimes arise from being in a workplace at which a self-harm incident or fatality may occur. Since its implementation, the Project Safe-Guard alert system has successfully helped to reduce self-harm incidents. This has led to greater confidence among security staff that they can prevent such incidents from occurring.

“I have gone into a control room after recent alerts have stopped a potential self-harm incident, and the positive response from the security team is incredible. They can’t believe it has worked, and it’s worked several times. The emotional stress of having to deal with something post-incident can be big,” Palmer said.

Moreover, the control with which business rules can be applied to the Axis network cameras via the Milestone system has reduced the potential for false positive alerts. This helps to minimise the risk of alert fatigue among controllers, meaning they are more likely to respond in a timely manner to alerts when they come through because they are likely to be genuine incidents.

The start of something big

With Robina Town Centre being the pilot site for Project Safe-Guard, similar systems have now been rolled out in other QIC shopping centres, including Grand Central in Toowoomba, Queensland, and Canberra Centre, with another five across Australia in progress.

Not only was Grand Central’s system deployed in just three months, it has quickly led to a reduction in self-harm incidents and security breaches at the shopping centre. The Grand Central deployment also made use of the Axis C1310-E Horn Speaker, providing security team members located in the control room with the ability to communicate with, or deliver audible warnings to, individuals in other areas of the centre. This is used in security breaches only.

Between Robina Town Centre and Grand Central, at least four potential self-harm incidents have been prevented since the Axis network cameras were deployed to support Project Safe-Guard.

“At Robina, we have built a town centre for the community to come to for more than just shopping, and in doing that we want it to be a safe place. This is all about safety, even out of hours,” Palmer said.

“At Grand Central, we’ve already stopped two potential self-harm incidents, along with multiple security breaches and misuse.”

Image credit: iStock.com/ben-bryant