The Role of Mobile Surveillance Units in Community Security

No matter where you live, your community likely deals with some level of security concern. The type and quantity of these concerns may vary based on location, but every community could benefit from an elevated security approach. 

Effective community security should involve, unsurprisingly, the community. The security of homeowners, businesses, and local institutions is contingent on the involvement of each member of the community’s vigilance and willingness to participate. To aid in this effort, technologically advanced mobile surveillance units—such as the ones made by LiveView Technologies—can help deter crime and increase the general feeling of safety in the community. 

What Is Mobile Surveillance?

Many businesses, institutions, and homeowners rely on fixed, mounted cameras and other traditional security solutions to protect their facilities and assets. While these methods are sufficient in deterring and capturing some threats, communities often face more dynamic, elusive threats that can be hard to limit with traditional solutions. Mobile surveillance—which can refer to anything from trailer-mounted units to mobile security camera towers, to drones, to body-worn cameras—allows communities to monitor areas traditional cameras may not be able to cover.

When keeping your community safe, there’s no room to ignore the threats that may lurk in unmonitored areas. Self-sufficient power sources and portable units make mobile surveillance an incredibly valuable asset for any community.

Common Community Safety Concerns

Every community is unique, and so are the security threats each of them face. Below are some common safety issues that can plague a community:

1. Crime: This may seem like an obvious one, but criminal activity is a foremost threat to business owners, homeowners, and the community at large. While assault, homicide, theft, and vandalism are more commonly thought of as activities to be monitored, gang activity, drug use, bullying, and domestic violence are also significant issues that must be mitigated.

2. Public health concerns: The health of a community is seriously affected by issues such as drug and alcohol abuse, sanitation issues, infectious diseases, environmental issues such as pollution, and other concerns.  

3. Traffic incidents: Dangerous road conditions are immensely hazardous to a community’s security. Poor road maintenance, improperly planned infrastructure (including an insufficient number of pedestrian crossings), high-speed traffic, drunk and distracted driving, and other dangers can pose serious threats to citizens’ safety. 

How Mobile Surveillance Can Benefit Your Community

Mobile surveillance solutions can enhance the safety and security of your community in many important ways. 

Units designed for mobile surveillance, such as those offered by LiveView Technologies, provide real-time monitoring of the surveilled area. In areas where fixed security solutions aren’t available or prevalent, mobile units can be invaluable for capturing crime in real-time and even quickening police response time.

Not only can mobile surveillance units help to accurately capture and investigate criminal activity after it’s happened, but they can also deter it in the first place. The presence of security cameras—further enhanced by features like two-way audio and floodlights—can be enough, in many cases, to cause a criminal to think twice before performing illegal activities. They can also be an asset to neighborhood watches and other existing programs. When crime is deterred, communities are safer and law enforcement is more cost-effective and efficient. 

Mobile surveillance is designed to be a flexible, convenient, and rapid solution to a community’s unique needs. Unlike fixed cameras, these units can be deployed and moved quickly to serve areas with changing needs. 

More Than a Crime-Stopper

Mobile surveillance units can do so much more for a community than simply deter crime. 

Response to other types of emergencies can be aided significantly by mobile surveillance, allowing information to be transmitted to first responders in real-time and improving the flow of communication. 

In correlation with crime deterrence, mobile surveillance can have a major impact on both reassuring a community of its safety and increasing trust in local law enforcement. 

Mobile surveillance can also play a significant role in traffic management and can help record accidents and deter road rage and other incidents. 

Real-Life Results: The ACCESS Taskforce

It’s become more and more clear that mobile surveillance can greatly enhance community security efforts, but you don’t have to take our word for it: LiveView Technologies collaborated with police departments, municipal governments, and retail companies in Opelika, Alabama and Paducah, Kentucky to facilitate the testing of LVT solutions. Referred to as The Alliance of Companies and Communities to Enhance Safety and Security (ACCESS) Taskforce, this research effort included the collection of sentiments and opinions from local stakeholders on the success of LVT units in their areas.

As part of the ACCESS Taskforce effort, respondents were asked about their general perceptions and attitudes toward both LVT’s Units and the Taskforce. When asked whether they believed their communities had become safer places to live, between 60-75% of respondents answered in the affirmative. 

The respondents’ general sentiment reflected that LVT Units made their communities safer, deterred the occurrence of crime, and helped retailers and law enforcement maintain a clear knowledge of the activity within their communities. One law enforcement respondent said they believed that LVT Units “increased community engagement" by allowing them to "discuss retail crimes." Another individual stated that they had not "been approached by any panhandlers in [local] parking lots since [the Units’] installation." 

Addressing Potential Concerns Around Community Security Efforts

Community security, especially when enhanced with mobile surveillance, can carry certain concerns relating to ethics, privacy, and more.

Within the findings of the ACCESS Taskforce, some respondents voiced concerns about the use of mobile public safety technology in their communities. One individual speculated that they felt their community experienced a perceived uptick in crime, but that it could possibly be attributed to "hearing about shootings in the city [they] didn't know about before." Others noted that the "placement of the units can block critical views of the street (for people turning out of a parking lot) in some locations," and that "[the Units] [make their community] look ghetto or like a crime-heavy area." Another respondent was concerned that one of the Units was set up in a “primarily Black neighborhood [where] there were no businesses anywhere on [the] block,” which the respondent believed to be racist in motivation. Beyond these responses, mobile surveillance units may fuel sentiments that citizens’ privacy is being violated, which may open the door to controversy related to government overreach and citizens’ rights.

It’s essential to take into account each of these concerns, as well as any other grievances that arise as you endeavor to protect your community. Ethics and privacy should be of the utmost importance to business owners, law enforcement professionals, and local governments when conducting mobile surveillance. Those responsible for community safety efforts should always consult local laws and regulations surrounding mobile surveillance, and should involve the community in discussions on the subject. Transparency and honesty should remain the standard in community relations.

Protect Your Community With LVT

Mobile surveillance, when used properly and in conjunction with community members’ efforts, can be an invaluable asset in maintaining community safety. Consider how your area can benefit from the use of mobile surveillance solutions, and discover the power of LVT Units in securing and protecting your own community.