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Plate Recognition; Facial
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Casino bosses urge patrons to mind their kids
March 28 2005 at 06:01PM
By Kuben Chetty, Bhavna Sookha and Sharlene Packree
Irresponsible parents, who spend hours gambling while their children are neglected at casinos, could be barred from the gambling houses.
And casino bosses are adamant that giving children money and leaving them to play video games is not being responsible.
Almost all the casinos in the province have dealt with cases involving neglected children.
'We banned one gambler from the casino'
Some, as young as five, are reported to be handed money and told to occupy themselves.
Prinella Pillay, Public Relations Manager at SunCoast Casino, said that the casino had just recently put into place a "Child Helpers Programme" charged with strictly monitoring the children in the complex and ensuring none of them are left loitering or neglected on the premises.
"The child helpers can be seen in bright red uniforms patrolling the complex and they work every evening from Friday through to Sunday between 8pm and 3am," Pillay said.
"There are also strategically-placed posters on the premises clearly indicating the importance of child safety to SunCoast and that in the interest of safety and peace of mind of the parents, children are not to be left unattended within the complex."
Pillay added that the child helpers worked very closely with security and the creche on the premises.
'I have personally attended to children'
"We reserve the right to remove unattended children to the creche and take appropriate action," she said.
The programme has been in place for about a month and already it is having a remarkable effect, she said.
"Like all casinos, we have had incidents of children found loitering while their parents are gambling," she said.
"The awareness that the programme has created has made parents more cognisant of the realities they will face if they leave their children unattended."
Pillay advises lost children at the complex to make their way to the Club Desk, creche, security or the closest child helper on duty.
Mike Burns, the Acting General Manager of Strategic Operations at the National Gambling Board, said that this initiative was very welcome and that he would encourage all casinos to follow suit.
He added that the Gambling Board was very strict about teenagers under the age of 18 being on the gambling floor, but said that the welfare of the children in the children's play area was usually up to the parents and the casinos.
"It's wonderful to see such an initiative being put into place because we are also committed to the welfare of children," he said.
He added that at most casinos it was a general policy among the staff and security to be on the lookout for children loitering or left unattended by their parents.
"These children are usually identified and then their parents are located," he said.
He added that he welcomed the strict regulations that were being put into place.
Alec McMath, general manager of the Wild Coast Sun, said they would not tolerate any parent leaving their child unattended.
"We have facilities to take care of children with a qualified child minder, and parents are obliged to come and check on their kids every hour. During peak holiday season we have extra staff on duty taking care of kids.
"If we find a child in the car alone, we will call the police and that parent would be barred from our complex," said McMath.
Patrick Beney, general manager of the Golden Horse Casino in Pietermaritzburg, said they had only had three cases of child neglect since the casino opened in 2002.
"Recently, we banned one gambler from the casino after he continually neglected his child."
Beney said where necessary, the South African Police Service or Child Welfare could be called in.
Melville Vogel, general manager at Sibaya Casino, says that from Sun International's point of view they have always been very pro-active on the issue of children on their properties.
"We have a designated creche which is staffed by childminders.
This is divided into a TV room and a play room with games and toys, and an area with cots," he said.
"When parents or guardians arrive to admit the child into our care, they are photographed and their details recorded.
"We also take their cellphone numbers so that in the event of a problem, or if the child is asking for the parent or guardian, they can be contacted."
He added that there was a strict policy that children could not be left in the facilities for longer than four hours and that parents had to check on their children every hour.
"If a parent or guardian breaches this rule, they are automatically banned for a period from between three and six months from the property."
"We are also able - through this monitoring - to check on anyone who may be neglecting their children."
He added that the casino didn't just "throw out" offenders.
"We do have a system in place whereby someone from the management team chats to the parents about the issues," Vogel said.
"During our busy periods, such as holiday seasons, we also employ extra staff to handle the children in the creche and to ensure that children are not wandering around unattended on the property," he said.
"Any child found wandering on its own is taken to an appropriate area, and the parents are then sought out and met with."
Vogel said that they had not had reason to ban any parent from the property yet.
"We do, however, see neglect as a form of abuse, and will take the appropriate action if required.
"I can confirm that along with other Sibaya management, I have personally attended to children and liaised with parents from time to time," he said.
o This article was originally published on page 4 of Daily News on March 28, 2005
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| Can 'clever cameras' keep tabs on crooks? |
February 26 2007 at 01:31AM |
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By Stephen Manning
Surveillance cameras are common in many cities, monitoring tough street corners to deter crime, watching over sensitive government buildings and even catching speeders. Cameras are on public buses and in train stations, building lobbies, schools and stores. Most feed video to central control rooms, where they are monitored by security staff. The innovations could mean fewer people would be needed to watch what they record, and make it easier to install more in public places and private homes. "Law enforcement people in this country are realising they can use video surveillance to be in a lot of places at one time," said Roy Bordes, who runs an Orlando, Florida-based security consulting company. He also is a council vice president with ASIS International, a Washington-based organisation for security officials. The advancements have already been put to work. For example, cameras in Chicago and Washington can detect gunshots and alert police. Baltimore installed cameras that can play a recorded message and snap pictures of graffiti sprayers or illegal dumpers. In the commercial market, the gaming industry uses camera systems that can detect facial features, according to Bordes. Casinos use their vast banks of security cameras to hunt cheating gamblers who have been flagged before. In London, one of the largest users of surveillance, cameras provided key photos of the men who bombed the underground system in July 2005 and four more who failed in a second attempt just days later. But the cameras were only able to help with the investigation, not prevent the attacks. Companies that make the latest cameras say the systems, if used broadly, could make video surveillance much more powerful. Cameras could monitor airports and ports, help secure homes and watch over vast borders to catch people crossing illegally. Intelligent surveillance uses computer algorithms to interpret what a camera records. The system can be programmed to look for particular things, like an unattended bag or people walking somewhere they don't belong. "If you think of the camera as your eye, we are using computer programs as your brain," said Patty Gillespie, branch chief for image processing at the Army Research Laboratory in Adelphi, Maryland. Today, the military funds much of the smart-surveillance research. At the University of Maryland, engineering professor Rama Chellappa and a team of graduate students have worked on systems that can identify a person's unique gait or analyse the way someone walks to determine if they are a threat. A camera trained to look for people on a watch list, for example, could combine their unique walk with facial-recognition tools to make an identification. A person carrying a heavy load under a jacket would walk differently than someone unencumbered - which could help identify a person hiding a weapon. The system could even estimate someone's height. With two cameras and a laptop computer set up in a conference room, Chellappa and a team of graduate students recently demonstrated how intelligent surveillance works. A student walked into the middle of the room, dropped a laptop case, then walked away. On the laptop screen, a green box popped up around him as he moved into view, then a second focused on the case when it was dropped. After a few seconds, the box around the case went red, signalling an alert. In another video, a car pulled into a parking lot and the driver got out, a box springing up around him. It moved with the driver as he went from car to car, looking in the windows instead of heading into the building. In both cases, the camera knew what was normal - the layout of the room with the suspicious bag and the location of the office door and parking spots in the parking lot. Alerts were triggered when the unknown bag was added and when the driver didn't go directly into the building after parking his car. Similar technology is currently in use by Marines in Iraq and by the subway system in Barcelona, according to ObjectVideo, a Reston, Virginia, firm that makes surveillance software. ObjectVideo uses a "tripwire system" that allows users to set up virtual perimeters that are monitored by the cameras. If someone crosses that perimeter, the system picks it up, sends out an alert, and security staff can determine if there is a threat. Company spokesperson Edward Troha predicts the technology, currently designed primarily to protect borders, ports and other infrastructure, could be adapted to help prevent retail theft or guard private homes. The Jacksonville Port Authority uses ObjectVideo software as part of its security measures to watch the perimeter of the Florida port that handles 8,7-million tons of cargo and thousands of cruise ship passengers each year. The surveillance system sends real-time video from anywhere at the port of possible intruders to patrol cars. Still, industry officials say the technology needs to improve before it can be widely used. There are liability issues, such as if someone is wrongly tagged as a threat at an airport and misses a flight, said Bordes. Troha warns humans are still essential to intelligent video, to tell, for example, if a person in a restricted area is a danger or just lost. And the cameras can only see so much - they can't stop some threats, like a bomber with explosives in a backpack. They can't see what you are wearing under your jacket - yet. "That is an eventual goal, but we're not there yet," said Chellappa. - Sapa-AP
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