Security Sales & Integration May 2021 - 38

Management
Security Robots ROI

Sensor-enhanced robot capabilities include facial recognition, ALPR, thermal cameras
for heat anomalies and body
temperature, gunshot detection, liquid spills, intercom, PA
broadcasts, mobile device detection, and human detection.

Example in Action
Even broader, many companies are seeing the
financial benefits autonomous security robots
are having across several areas of their businesses. For example, consider how security robots
can impact a general manager (GM) at a manufacturing facility:
Upon her arrival at work, the GM parks her
car in the employee parking lot. Six months
ago, she would arrive and often find people
sleeping in a car or in the stairwells. But now
thanks to the autonomous security robot, she
no longer has that problem as her workday begins. She's also no longer worried that her car
or any of her employees' cars will be broken
into, as the robot has deterred criminal activity
since its arrival. Her employees are now voicing
their appreciation to her for the robot instead
of complaining about the lack of security or
management's seeming lack of concern. As one
of her employees parks his car, the robot patrols by and says, " Good morning! Be sure to
lock your car and please don't forget your facemask. Have a safe day. " This reminds him to
put on his safety vest as well. The GM has seen
the much-needed improvement in safety policy
compliance, reducing the number of verbal and
written warnings her supervisors issue.
Around 11 a.m. she opens the robot's user
interface on her computer to take a video tour
around the facility. Her other robot, who the

Real-World Robot-Driven Crime Reduction

How effective are security robots at deterring crime? The evidence is growing
rapidly across a wide range of industries. Here are a few examples:
▶A
major hospital network was experiencing, on average, two crimes per
week in the parking lots at one of their main hospitals. After deploying a
security robot, the crimes were eliminated, recording zero crimes in the
following 12 months.
▶A
fter using a robot in the city's largest public park, the Huntington Park
Police Department in Los Angeles County recorded a 46% reduction in
crimes and 68% reduction in citations in the first seven months.
▶A
commercial property in downtown San Francisco was averaging 20
crimes per month in its parking structure, including trespassing, vandalisms and thefts. After incorporating a robot into its security program, just
one crime in 12 months was recorded.
▶A
multifamily residential community in northeast Las Vegas was ranked
among the top three complexes for 911 calls before deploying a robot.
According to the Las Vegas Metro Police Department, the community is
now below the top 10 list.
These are simple cases of hardening the target with an entirely new method
that highly motivates criminals to search for an easier victim elsewhere.

38 Security Sales & Integration MAY 2021

SS2105 pp36-39 Robots.indd 38

team has affectionately nicknamed OSHA, is
patrolling the manufacturing area. She can see
that her team is wearing their safety gear and
are maintaining social distances and then hears
the robot's safety tip for the day, " A spill, a trip,
a hospital trip. Safety is no accident! " She also
notices a delivery driver in a prohibited area, so
she contacts the supervisor to address it.
As OSHA heads outside, she can see their two
large propane tanks on video. She's reminded of
the potential disaster three months ago when
temporary workers from the staffing agency repeatedly moved two chairs and an ashtray close
to the tanks to smoke cigarettes. Now OSHA
provides a cautionary reminder each time it
patrols by, " Highly flammable gas. Smoking is
only permitted in the designated areas. "
OSHA switches roles now and is in security
mode as it reaches the distant fence line at the
back of the property. It stops for three minutes to observe, report and make its presence
known, announcing, " This area is under surveillance. Trespassers will be prosecuted. " After
having thieves and vandals cut through or jump
over the fence multiple times each month, the
GM is relieved that neither she nor her team
have had to deal with this issue since OSHA
arrived. As the robot continues its patrol, the
GM logs out of the software, confident the robot will alert her security team if/when needed.
With quarterly business reviews coming up,
the GM has good news to report. Worker's
Compensation claims are down, lost time is
down, sick pay costs are down, employee retention is up and training costs are down. There
have been fewer terminations, which resulted
in zero wrongful termination lawsuits filed in
the past three months. The legal fees her branch
is being charged is averaging $4,500 less each
month than a year ago. With employee turnover decreasing and employee referrals increasing, she's been able to eliminate the need for
costly temporary workers, which likely also explains the downtrend in losses due to internal
theft. Facility maintenance costs are also down
- the back fence has not been cut, not one
window broken and vandalism has disappeared
in the past six months. Year-to-date, this alone
is a savings of $6,500 over the previous year.
Best of all, employee satisfaction scores are now
third highest in the region.
Clearly, the positive results outlined above
would not be solely due to autonomous security robots but a collective effort of the managesecuritysales.com

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Security Sales & Integration May 2021

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