Techno 'Big Brother' security snoops shoo bad guys from restaurant sites

Nation's Restaurant News,  Sept 20, 1999  by Alan Liddle

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Decades ago actor Hugh O'Brian starred in a seemingly far-fetched television series about secret operatives outfitted with miniature audio and video recording equipment and wireless transmitters. The agents' every move, view and conversation was monitored back at headquarters.

That 1970s TV series, "Search," seemed to suggest that surveillance, even from afar, can thwart evil. Today that premise is being tested in the real world by a growing number of foodservice concerns, including AFC Enterprises Inc., Darden Restaurants Inc. and Tricon Global Restaurants Inc.

Interactive remote surveillance is helping Darden safeguard employees and patrons at units with unique security challenges, but the technology also has the potential to reduce travel time for regional operations managers, company officials said.

Orlando, Fla.-based Darden, parent company of the Red Lobster, Olive Garden and Bahama Breeze dinner-house chains, began using Westec Interactive Security in 1998 after failing to find a conventional solution to problems at a Red Lobster branch in Milwaukee.

"We were primarily looking for a system to perform parking-lot security [chores] in an area where we were having problems but could not hire off-duty police for patrols, and local [private] security was not appropriate," Darden vice president of corporate security Kenneth Grover explained.

Grover, a former police chief who holds a doctoral degree in administration, added: "We'd had a number of robberies at this restaurant in a year's time, but the main concern was the parking lot and a gang problem. We implemented the [Westec] program, and to my knowledge, we haven't had a problem at that location since."

Westec contracts to provide remote surveillance of far-flung businesses, using new or existing video cameras, microphones and telecommunications equipment. Client sites are watched over by Westec employees known as "intervention specialists," who man video monitors in a "visual command center" at the security company's headquarters in Newport Beach, Calif.

The key to the Westec service is "voice downs." In such situations security company staffers who spot would-be criminals can deliver warnings over loudspeakers that their images, voices and, in some cases, vehicle license numbers are being recorded and that they should cease unlawful or suspicious activity immediately and leave the premises.

Though random surveillance can lead to a voice down, Westec officials indicated that the procedure normally is initiated by suspicious or worried managers or employees who can push any one of a number of alarm buttons, including one on their own pager.

Cindy Smith, operations director for Westec's visual command center, said her company's employees immediately contact local law enforcement when a violent crime is in progress or violence is a possibility.

"If we see a weapon or feel that a suspect may harm an employee, we won't 'voice down' or set off any type of alarm that might startle the perpetrator," Smith said in a prepared statement about the company's services. "Instead, we call local police and stay on the line with them to provide updates and accurate physical descriptions of the perpetrators."

Dan Lieberman, a Darden corporate security specialist, said company policy requires the closing crew at restaurants using the Westec service to call for a "video escort to their vehicles." He said the procedure amounts to an "interactive guard tour" during which Westec staffers "look around the premises via audio and video and then tell the manager and staff it is safe to leave."

Lieberman said Westec's services are in use at 12 of the company's 1,100 domestic restaurants, with another installation in progress. "We'll probably double our investment [in remote surveillance] next year," he said.

Arlene Perry is a director of operations for seven Darden restaurants in Northern California and western Nevada. She said interactive remote surveillance was begun at the Sacramento, Calif., Red Lobster about a year ago as a "pro-active measure" because several other businesses in the area had suffered from criminal activity.

"My location is so big and has such a huge parking lot that even with up to three security guards you can't really have a full view of the whole area at any one time," she explained. "Going with the Westec system allowed us to save money while being fully covered by the security department [command center] as well as from the manager's office."

Perry said employees are "happy" about the surveillance system and may request an interactive escort to their cars at any time by picking up a red phone in the manager's office. Simple chores, such as taking out the trash, which have given some would-be robbers an opportunity to spring deadly ambushes in recent years, can be undertaken with confidence, she indicated, because "you can get a full view of the area outside your restaurant before you open the back door."