security

Artist’s impression of planned ‘smart city’ Dholera, southern Gujarat, India India is building 100 ‘smart cities’ in an ambitious plan to ease pressure on India’s overcrowded urban environment. In his maiden speech as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced that INR73.6bn (£710m) would be spent “developing 100 satellite towns” surrounding large cities. In a June speech [...]

TDSi will be showcasing their access control solutions at IFSEC South-East Asia Register to visit IFSEC 2014 now. When: 3-5 September 2014 Where: Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, Malaysia We delved into the history of biometrics and its potential growth trajectory with access-control luminary John Davies. Surveying a rapidly-evolving industry, the TDSi chief also notes how security [...]

Earlier this year Axis announced a massive upgrade to their Q60 line of PTZ cameras. I was fortunate enough to get my hands on the new Q6044-E model and spent a few days putting it through its paces. The Q6044-E, which is a 720p Pan Tilt Zoom camera, has several upgrades that differentiate it from [...]

Photo: John Bradley (under licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) The Chief Fire Officers Association (CFOA) has issued further guidance on tackling the thorny, perennial problem of false alarms. Charging businesses for callouts is one way of addressing the problem, as the London Fire Brigade has been doing since January this year if they attend more than 10 false [...]

In March 2012 the Kuala Lumpur police force set itself the goal of catapulting the city into the world’s safest 20 cities by 2020 – no mean feat given it had just been named the world’s 79th safest city to live on the Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) livability index. The City’s police chief, Datuk Mohmad [...]

The Wireless Access Control Market in 2014 The market for wireless access control remains embryonic. Just 6% of businesses have a fully wireless system, according to an IFSEC Global survey of businesses across a wide range of sizes and sectors. In addition, 17% of premises employ a hybrid solution, a mixture of wired and wireless [...]

The recent Commonwealth Games brings into focus the verity of situations modern Safe City ‘systems’ need to cope with. The technology is often seen as the answer to the prayers of municipal authorities and control centre operators. But it must always be seen in the context of its intended purpose and what ‘risk’ the technology [...]

Former NHS security adviser Peter Finch reflects on the growing professionalisation of the security industry generally and the NHS in particular. Finch, who was a security adviser at Sandwell & West Birmingham Hospitals NHS at the time of this interview, is now head of security at Coventry Building Society. Joining the Royal Air Force as an RAF Policeman in [...]

Courtesy of @pauljwpb on Twitter The fire that gutted Eastbourne pier’s Grade II listed Victorian dome is the latest in a litany of blazes on seaside piers down the years. From the 1976 blaze on Southend Pier to the 2010 Hastings fire, below are documented five fires that have destroyed well over a century’s of [...]

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) faces a three-month trial under the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 after a firefighter died on duty in Edinburgh five years ago. Ewan Williamson died after becoming trapped in a toilet on the ground floor while tackling a basement blaze at the Balmoral Bar in July [...]