Problem Statement: More Crime Less LEO

There have always been predators and those preyed upon. Many folks believe that the police will always be there to protect and remove the threat. I am going to stay away from the politics – fund, de-fund, cut funding, etc. for local law enforcement. The bottom line is that living – walking down a street with your family, being a clerk in a bodega, pulling up to a stop light and stopping, taking the family to a movie theater, sending your kids off to school, etc. have become high risk choices. And, it becomes less likely that there is going to be a sheriff close by to step in to increase the chances of a happy outcome.

I have thought for a very long time, that a clerk working in a convenience store in any city, a 24 hour gas station, etc. has to be incredibly brave. As shown in the video, by the time that LEO arrive on the scene, the life changing event is now history.

A quick aside, the idea that a panic button is some how a solution for a clerk that is being beaten over the head, someone at home watching TV, someone sitting at a stop light, etc. is most probably an idea from someone that has never been assaulted going about their daily life. And while having a door camera or CCTV camera installed inside your home is comforting, by the time someone views the video stream, lives have been changed forever.

At a high level, reducing risk can be addressed by applying active, reactive and hybrid reactive/active solutions.

On the active side, more emphasis on stronger family interaction and values, education leading to jobs and more satisfaction in life – the possibility of a rewarding life without beating someone over the head, access to mental health providers, etc. are all positive steps. However, society has shown little interest in investing in long term solutions.

On the reactive side, there is leveraging off the shelf hardware and software — infrastructure that individuals and businesses currently own – minimal cost.

From https://aithority.com/news/top-10-countries-and-cities-by-number-of-cctv-cameras/ “According to the data collected by PreciseSecurity.com, China, the United States, and Germany are the countries with the largest number of surveillance cameras in the world. China is the undisputed leader with four times more surveillance cameras installed in its territory than the United States.

People often label China as a Security state, when in fact, the USA has more Closed Circuit TV (CCTV) cameras per capita. Regarding the number of cameras per person, the United States remains a clear leader in the world.

At the same time, 8 out of the top 10 cities in the world with the largest number of surveillance cameras installed are located in China. London and New Delhi were the other two cities among the top 10.”

From https://www.statista.com/topics/2711/us-smartphone-market/#topicHeader__wrapper “The smartphone market in the United States is one of the world’s largest, with approximately 298 million smartphone users as of 2021. In line with the overall growth of the smartphone market worldwide, the smartphone penetration rate in the United States has continuously risen over the past several years, reaching 85 percent in February 2021. Revenue from smartphone sales is forecast to reach close to 75 billion U.S. dollars in 2022, as the market recovers from the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.”

The good news:

1. There are hundreds of millions of CCTVs and cell phones already owned by private individuals and businesses in the USA.
2. Each one of these devices is capable of recording both audio and video streams.
3. Each one of these devices is capable of being used as a source of data to categorize and detect crimes about to happen and crimes in progress.
4. CCTV cameras and cell phones are edge devices.
5. Each one of the major cloud vendors provide ample support for edge devices (IOT support)
6. Each one of the major cloud vendors provide ample support for cognitive services to determine human activity.
7. Each one of the major cloud vendors provide ample alerting services.

Over the next couple of weeks, I will be describing how we have stitched all of these services together to provide a cost effective reactive service to assist those that are being preyed upon. Topics to be described:

1. Classification and detection on cell phones and desktops – sub-second
2. Activity detection on desktops and the cloud – three to seven seconds
3. Alerts and alarms – make the attacker aware that they have been identified and LEO automatically notified.
4. No human interaction required.