The Patriot One Technologies booth at the Active Threat symposium at Park MGM was busy last week.
With 150 casino security directors in Las Vegas from across the country seeking ways to protect their properties – especially in wake of the Oct. 1st mass shooting on the Strip that left 58 dead and hundreds injured – everyone is looking for the next technology that can prevent that from happening.
Since the mass shooting at a concert venue by a shooter perched high above at his Mandalay Bay suite, casinos like Agua Caliente in Rancho Mirage, Calif., have added metal detectors.
The Westgate Las Vegas has been testing Patriot One’s emerging technology. The resort was already looking to implement the products prior to the Oct. 1st shooting. It’s called a first-of-its-kind Cognitive Microwave Radar concealed weapons detection system to combat active shooter threats before they occur.
A system that could cost $250,000 or more to install in a major hotel, to $25,000 to $50,000 for smaller properties, alerts security by detecting guns, knives or explosive devices by scanning people covertly. The idea is that it would have detected guns shooter Stephen Paddock brought into the Mandalay Bay.
Randy Lawrence, security director at Casino Pauma in California, said his property doesn’t have a hotel. But, he expects larger hotels to add metal detectors and new technologies like the Patriot One system that detect weapons and bombs.
“The active shooter technology is ever changing,” Lawrence said. “They have gunshot recognition and now a company has a spray that comes out of a ceiling to neutralize an individual. But what it comes back to is money. It costs a lot.”
There were mixed feelings from security directors about the use of metal detectors in casinos. Some suggested the public is used to it already at airports, sporting events and concerts and want to feel safe when they’re sitting in a casino. Others say everyone is fearful of taking that approach because they will lose customers.
The casino industry is in customer service business and has to create that balance between intrusiveness and providing guests customer service and making sure they feel welcome, said Mohammad Rafaqat, director of security at Reno’s Grand Sierra Resort & Casino. He’s a proponent of the “right technology” that improves safety and security.
“I think some of the less intrusive built-in metal detectors that the Westgate is testing and phasing in, that’s the kind of stuff that solves both problems of being less intrusive and making people feel welcome and not feel hassled,” Rafaqat said. “Those are the kinds of things we need to discuss and look at and the kind of things we are discussing at our property. There are no silver bullets. If somebody is determined and nobody knows about what they’re doing, it’s a very difficult situation to stop from occurring. I hope with this group we can mitigate and deter and put some measures in place that one day will hopefully deter somebody from engaging.”
Tom Nardone, president of BulletSafe Bulletproof Vests, told conference attendees that facial recognition technology is going to be one of those game changers.
“I don’t think the customers in this room will be the leaders,” Nardone said. “I think the technology will have to trickle down from the large players in the casino market and from airports and sporting venues, and then it will come down to the travel area.”
Ron Belcher, a lieutenant in public safety with the Quinault Indian Nation in Washington State, asked how facial recognition stops a mass shooter in a casino. He said it’s more for identifying players who will rip off casinos and not protect the casino from someone who is a threat.
Facial recognition is not going to stop an active shooter but what it can do is provide you a little bit of warning if you have someone that’s recognized that’ about to come on your property, according to Jason Goldberg, director of global incident management solutions for Verint Systems. Coupled with license plate readers when people enter the property, that provides a warning too, security executives said.
“Facial recognition is only one tool in your toolbox,” Goldberg said. “You can’t repair your car with a wrench. You have an entire garage full to accomplishment whatever you are trying to do. I think taking courses in human behavior is completely relevant. People at an airport in Israel, there entire job is to study human behavior. If you are acting in a suspicious way, you get pulled aside.”
One security executive said it’s not about the cost of adding metal detectors, it’s about payroll as well. If there are multiple entrances that could run an extra $1 million a year in payroll that’s not available in a department that doesn’t earn revenue. Other technology requires people to monitor and assess the data.
“All the technology and electronic information out there works, but it still takes humans to input this information and these humans have to be trained,” Belcher said.
As far as pitching technology to ownership, license plate recognition and facial recognition can be used to enhance customer service, Goldberg said. It’s not just for catching the bad guys because if you have a high roller coming in, you want to be alerted when they enter the property, he said.
Whatever security measures are added, must be communicated, Rafaqat said.
“It’s how you roll it out and communicate with guests,” Rafaqat said. “The initial launch is how your team is trained and how you can mitigate some of the pushback. If you roll it out without any reason, there will be pushback.”
