Automate evidence exports to Clearance

Safeguard event-related video

Most organizations have established guidelines for handling video relating to events that affect their operations, whether they’re security or non-security-related. Genetec Clearance™ can simplify how you store video and customize retention rules to follow these policy requirements.

Based on the type of alarm and their environment, your organization can be faced with different considerations for how to handle event-related video. This can include sharing it with stakeholders outside of the security team, retaining these recordings beyond the surveillance system’s standard retention schedule, and ensuring redundancy and protection of the recordings.

Automate video preservation policies

To export recordings from Genetec Security Center to Clearance, operators need to select a clip and send it to a case. However, this process can be impractical when there’s a high frequency of alarms when an operator is unavailable. By adding event-to-action triggers in Security Center, you can automate export and case creation within Clearance and have a fully integrated solution.

The functionality is available through the Clearance plugin and uses the pre-existing event-to-action feature in Security Center. Your organization can add to your existing alarms configuration to export recordings to Clearance. The functionality uses Security Center alarms as the event triggers, and events can be associated based on cameras, doors, zones, and alarm panels.

Address 4 common challenges of managing video evidence

Here are four ways to improve video evidence management by using event-to-actions.

1. Overcome short-term retention policies:

Certain jurisdictions mandate short Archiver retention periods on their CCTV system. This poses a problem when the periods are so limited that it can impact the security team’s ability to retrieve the evidence in time. Using event-to-action, recordings are automatically sent to Clearance when an alarm is triggered. Once in the app, customers can categorize the evidence, which sets forth specific retention policies.

2. Ensure redundancy of critical recordings:

Recordings kept onsite can be at risk of being destroyed if the recorder is damaged. An example of this is panic button incidents. These commonly happen in stores, buildings, and transit vehicles. The button protects employees’ and clients' safety, while the automatic export of the recording to the cloud protects the recording's availability through a backup to an offsite location. 

3. Share records when required:

Another requirement for organizations is to be able to preserve records of certain activities that must be reviewed by other parties, whether for security, compliance, or audit purposes. For example, refineries and gas distribution plants are required to track all instances of flare failure based on thermal detection or photos taken at short intervals. Each event must be retained and made available if there is an audit by environmental agency inspectors. 

4. Minimize human error:

Regardless of the type of alarm, human error represents another risk factor leading to missed event recordings. This is especially true for organizations with high turnover rates who rely on training new hires to mitigate this risk. Automating video export eliminates the potential for mistakes and reduces the degree of onboarding required.

Achieve regulatory compliance

Overall, organizations must comply with different laws and policies governing security and non-security incidents alike. Their objective is to protect themselves from fines, liability, and other adverse consequences.

Adding event-to-actions to Clearance allows your organization to comply by enabling:

• The ability to review and share recordings with stakeholders outside of the SOC
• The retention of event-based video for extended periods of time 
• Redundancy to mitigate potential loss of data incidents

Additional information

• Security Center 5.9 and above is required for version 3.5.98.0 of the plugin 
• Learn more about event-to-action triggers here 
• Find out about all the new features included in the release in the user guide