Axis and Metropolitan Police join forces to win ‘Best Collaborative Solution’ at The Fraud Awards

Axis Communications, a provider of network video, is celebrating its success at The Fraud Awards after winning the ‘Best Collaborative Solution’ category alongside The Metropolitan Police Service. The award recognised the pair’s ongoing commitment to deter and detect crime in retail environments by optimising camera placement and configuration to ensure fit for purpose images for the identification of offenders.

Identifying offenders with CORII

The two organisations are working closely together to deliver the Camera Optimisation for Retail to Improve Identifications (CORII) project. This aims to identify a single, fit for purpose, optimised camera configuration that will generate images that the police can use to make identifications, either automatically through a facial recognition system or by more traditional means, that lead to arrests, convictions and thus reduces crime. The total cost of crime in retail was £660m in 2016, of which £458m was attributed to theft.

The CORII project included a full review of best practices for the capture, identification, storage, sharing and use of intelligence gathered by network camera technology. This facilitated the development of a framework for high street retailers on how to best utilise IP technology to reduce crime. Although not part of the CORII project, Axis’ network cameras, access controllers and video door stations can be easily combined with facial recognition technology to identify real-time security incidents, enabling immediate action to be taken by security and loss prevention staff.

Atul Rajput, Regional Director, Northern Europe at Axis Communications, states: “This award demonstrates a real and positive step towards greater collaboration between high-street retailers. We anticipate that the value of the CORII project to the retail community will be huge. This initiative joins together the police and business community in a true partnership that will better inform and enable the security industry and retailers to positively impact organised crime.”

Improving use of available technology

DCI Georgie Barnard of The Metropolitan Police Service states, “CCTV and network camera technology are commonly utilised today, but we are not always getting the best from these systems. The results of this project, due to end in early 2018, will create guidance for CCTV users when designing or changing their systems. We don’t have to wait for new technology; we can prevent and detect more crime today by improving the way we use the technology already available to use. The National Business Crime Centre will publish the framework nationally.”

Axis and The Metropolitan Police’s collaboration is promoting surveillance best practice to facilitate the genuine reduction of crime for all retailers, as opposed to merely displacing crime from those that are using sophisticated network camera analytics to stores that aren’t. The focus is to encourage a wider deployment of technology in all stores on UK high streets, leading to the overall reduction of organised retail crime.

Atul Rajput states, “We can help reduce retail crime by creating an appropriate framework for the use of surveillance and facial recognition technology within high-street stores. Through the correct use of network security technology, retailers can share intelligence to ensure that crime across all stores is reduced. Greater awareness of the latest security technology available will be crucial to help achieve this.”