SISTEMAS DE SEGURIDAD

CHECKLIST FOR CONDUCTING A HUMAN FACTORS ASSESSMENT OF CCTV CONTROL ROOMS

Important: read this before undertaking the Human Factors Checklist

Full instructions

Aims

• This pro-forma of questions (‘HF Checklist’) is designed as a tool to support those who are interested in the benefits of applying basic human factors (HF) advice to CCTV control rooms at CNI or other relevant sites.

• The HF Checklist can be used by external assessors (for example, CTSAs or security advisors with responsibility for the site) in order to provide advice to site security managers. Alternatively, internal security managers can use the HF Checklist to provide a snapshot of HF issues relating to their own CCTV control room.

• The HF Checklist assumes that the CCTV room operators carry out at least some pro-active monitoring as part of their job role.

• The HF Checklist is designed to identify areas where HF advice or interventions for improvement might benefit a particular site. In general this advice should be provided by reference to the guidance document associated with the HF Checklist - the ‘Human factors in CCTV control rooms: A best practice guide’ (‘HF Guide’).

Assessment process

• External assessors should have read and be highly familiar with the HF Guide that acts as the key reference source and support in the assessment and advisory process. Internal assessors will also benefit from familiarising themselves with the HF Guide prior to conducting an assessment and subsequently it can be used as a manual to prioritise any HF interventions required.

• The principles and benefits of the HF approach are fully explained in the HF Guide, but are summarised in brief below. Since some CCTV/security managers, or operators, may lack knowledge of human factors, assessors might need to explain the benefits when first proposing an assessment.

Why undertake an HF Assessment?

Traditional approaches for improving CCTV control rooms have typically sought to satisfy technical requirements. The ‘human factor’, or the operator team, is often neglected but is equally as important in achieving the aims of the CCTV function.

The HF approach looks at creating a CCTV control room that is designed to support the activities of the control room staff in a particular environmental context and thereby ensure an effective CCTV function.

Human factors (HF) is a practice which applies research from psychology, engineering, physiology and other spheres to understand how a person interacts with his/her world. It’s about matching the needs and limitations of the human to the design of equipment, jobs and work environments within the context of the broader environmental and social context.

The potential benefits of the HF assessment include:

o Identifying areas for control room improvement

o Getting the best operator job performance

o Optimising the potential detection of incidents/crimes

With the above in place, there may be financial benefits in the longer term

• The HF Checklist consists of both manager and operator surveys/interview guides.

- For external assessors, responses using the former should be sought from first-line managers and/or supervisors as well as more senior management if possible. Ideally only one person should be interviewed at a time, especially for the more sensitive questions.

- Internal assessors can complete the manager survey themselves as well as seeking responses from other relevant managers/supervisors as above. The main thing to bear in mind is that honest responses are needed for the process to be effective.

- The operator survey is designed for use with CCTV operators; their perceptions may differ from that

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