Dr Craig Donald advocates the use of intelligence and smart surveillance to assist control rooms in dealing with the challenges of the size and dispersed nature common in all mining environments.

A video management system (VMS) is central to, and the most vital element to any control room operation using CCTV as part of its service delivery, however, all too often, it is seen as a technical solution rather than an operational solution.

The increasing development of AI and its role in enhancing investigation-led surveillance, and the increasing capacity of control rooms and local analysts to deliver data in return, can increase the synergy between intelligence and surveillance.

Dr Craig Donald says expanding stakeholder involvement beyond security to operations and production leads to greater control room surveillance effectiveness and the potential of additional budgets from other departments.

With the use of the AI term and adverts talking about intelligent systems and learning, it seems from the marketing narratives, we can almost hand over much of control room security to AI based systems.

The better the operator’s frame of reference and situational awareness, and the more informed they are in dealing with CCTV surveillance in the mining industry, the more successful they are likely to be in surveillance.

Constant violations of procedures governing access, unusual handling of goods, empty boxes or containers of product lying around or hidden behind other goods, unauthorised use of exit areas, and movement to unexpected perimeter areas can be a major issue.

Organisational culture in organisations can be seen as the set of values, practices, focus, standards and behaviours, and ways of interacting with others that are accepted and subscribed to by the people who work there.

The concept of surveillance solutionism has been used more broadly in the context of other types of surveillance, including the monitoring of people using technology, apps, social media, as well as AI-enabled technology.