Imagine you originally invested over $1 million in your brand-new urban home. You invested in it even further by renovating it over the years. You have gotten to know your neighbors. You live near where you work. You have your favorite restaurants and coffeehouse just an elevator ride away from you on the ground level. You have built a community.
But, years later, an opioid epidemic takes over your city, your community. Your car is broken into every few months. You hear of your neighbors being assaulted and having their cell phones and other belongings taken. Now all you have to do is walk downstairs to see the struggle firsthand. There are tents and people sleeping on the ground near human waste under the awnings of your once favorite restaurants and coffeehouse. There are used needles on the ground that you and your neighbors have to be careful to step over each day. You hear people shouting at each other. You see the boarded-up windows of an ice cream parlor you used to go to that someone broke into last night. Your property value is now stagnant because your once thriving and luxurious new neighborhood is now considered a high-crime and seedy area.
This was the reality for an entire urban residential community prior to deploying Knightscope Autonomous Security Robots (ASRs). They continued to add contract security personnel year over year, but the problems, the crime, the vagrancy, the drug use continued and even increased as their security spend increased. At the request of their Board of Directors, the Knightscope team came out and provided a site assessment and made extensive recommendations – what ASR models they should deploy; where their ASRs should patrol; which messages should be automatically broadcasted and in which areas and during which times of day; where in the parking structure should there be the most ASR patrolling presence; where the ASR’s LED strobe effect should be automatically activated and where it should be deactivated; where the patrol and broadcast volumes should be automatically increased and where it should be decreased… well, you get the point.
Once the Knightscope ASRs were deployed, the residents immediately recognized a mass exodus of undesirables. The tents, the human waste, the vehicle break-ins, the property crime, the drug use, all disappeared. The business owners of the retail storefronts began to see an uptick in business. Patrons felt safer. Residents felt more secure. It felt like the community it once was. It solved the community’s problems.
But, for nearby neighborhoods, it is a bittersweet victory, as just a few blocks away in every direction, where these technologies are not yet deployed, the same undesirable conditions exist. There just aren’t any robots deterring their behavior and encouraging them to take their business elsewhere.
Property crimes such as burglary, vehicle break-ins, bicycle thefts and vandalism are occurring at an alarming rate in the United States. According to the FBI, there were 7.1 million property crimes in the U.S. in 2018. Across 4 time zones already, Knightscope Security Robots & A.I. are fully dedicated to reducing and even eliminating property crime at a time when some governments are choosing not to prosecute or even enforce misdemeanor crimes. ASRs are a welcome relief to many clients – small to large. And the wins against crime are racking up including from our law enforcement agency clients (see here for wins!).
Through machine learning, Knightscope has trained its web-based software with millions of images of people, so now ASRs are detecting humans, in some cases, better than humans can detect humans. In addition, ASRs can automatically broadcast deterring messages emphatically upon the detection of a suspicious individual either by location or by time of day if the client so chooses. This is serving as a much more powerful deterrent, demonstrating to criminals that this machine knows that they are a human and that they need to exit the area.
All Knightscope Autonomous Security Robots provide 360-degree, eye-level, high-definition video surveillance accompanied by signage that reads “Recording Video and Audio for Your Safety,” all of which serve as a powerful deterrent to criminal behavior. According to Knightscope end users, 360-degree, eye-level video that is on the move provides a significantly greater crime deterrent, with up to 100% elimination of criminal occurrences in some cases, than any fixed camera surveillance system.
The Knightscope K5 ASR comes equipped with a powerful LED strobe light that acts like a beacon that can be seen from over 1,000 feet away. It continuously illuminates substantial surface areas and quadrants of a property, making it an undesirable visual environment for unwanted loiterers intending to dwell for extended periods of time and possibly commit crime.
Knightscope’s Security Robots emit a repetitive and rhythmic patrol sound that serves as an audible psychological deterrent to possible criminals. When set at a loud enough setting, this patrol sound can be heard from all areas of a property, but clients are able to adjust the volumes to ensure the comfort of residents, visitors and neighbors.
ASRs can detect blacklisted mobile devices (phone, laptop, tablet or rogue router) while on patrol. When a device emitting a Wi-Fi signal passes within a nearly 500 foot radius of a robot, actionable intelligence is captured from that device including information such as: where, when, distance between the robot and device, the duration the device was in the area and how many other times it was detected on site recently. Blacklisted device names can either be entered via the Knightscope Security Operations Center (KSOC) user interface or provided to the Knightscope Client Experience (CX) team for entry into the blacklist database, which can include a photo of the individual and description of the potential threat. This security program enhancement can detect for individuals suspected of committing a crime, persons who pose a potential threat, or those that have engaged in suspicious behavior in the past. Alerts can be escalated via email, text, voice or KSOC.
Similar to the device detection discussed above, Knightscope’s security robots can also detect blacklisted license plates of suspicious or problematic vehicles. Those plates may also be uploaded directly into the KSOC user interface by the client or via request made to the CX team. Conversely, you may also
whitelist plates in secure lots or structures and receive an exception report each time an unknown plate enters the area. Alerts can be escalated via email, text, voice or KSOC. License plate detections also provide intelligence on how long a vehicle has been parked in the same parking space, which may then be used to alert a client if a vehicle has been sitting too long – like a Guest Parking area or an abandoned vehicle.
Now that you’ve learned about how Autonomous Security Robots & Artificial Intelligence are deterring property crime so effectively across the U.S. in all weather conditions, let’s set up a (virtual) meeting so we can begin addressing your problems with a true total solution today. Request a private demo today and let’s work together to significantly upgrade your security program.
