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A Corinth, Texas, auto dealership has posted a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those persons responsible for the theft of several catalytic converters off the dealership lot.

Catalytic converters are prime targets for theft as they can be quickly and quietly removed from vehicles. According to the Corinth dealership General Manager, a typical converter can fetch up to $100 and is removed by simply unscrewing only six bolts. While the converter can fetch $100, the dealership assumes a much higher cost. The absence of a catalytic converter renders a vehicle unfit for sale, and a backordered converter is very difficult to replace. In all, the total cost for the dealership can run anywhere between $54,000 to $84,000 according to the article.

Protect your Property with Stealth Monitoring

 
Whether you need to protect a car dealership or any other type of commercial property from theft, Stealth Monitoring is here to help. As a trusted provider of live video surveillance services, we employ highly trained personnel to monitor live video feeds of your property after hours rather than relying on alarms to alert us to suspicious activity. Our proactive approach to protecting your valuable assets and our relationship with local police departments can deter potential threats before they have a chance to escalate into dangerous or damaging situations.

To find out how Stealth Monitoring can help protect your property, contact us today.

Dallas Police have done an astounding job fighting metal theft and continue to improve their capabilities and intelligence, as portrayed by a recent news story in the Dallas Observer.

At 4:00 a.m., an officer with the Dallas Police Department witnessed two men loading large amounts of aluminum plates and overhang brackets from a construction site into their pickup truck. After the officer told the men that they were under arrest, the criminals took off with the stolen metal in tow, one on foot and one in the truck.

The suspect in the truck did not make it very far before stopping to let his accomplice jump in, at which point the officer sprayed pepper spray in through the window. But as the driver attempted to speed away, he failed to notice that his partner had run in front of the truck and hit him. The man, not badly injured, jumped to his feet and both suspects attempted to flee on foot before once again turning back to the truck.

But this time, the officer had managed to take the getaway vehicle’s keys, and the two suspects only made it a few blocks on foot before additional officers arrived to arrest them.

Stealth Monitoring Maintains Relationships with Police Departments

 
The combination of proactive video surveillance and Stealth Monitoring’s relationship with local law enforcement agencies is what sets us apart. When one of the trained personnel in our control room identifies a potential threat, we waste no time in contacting the police and getting them on the scene to deter the escalation of the situation. Our monitors are even able in some cases to push live video feeds to the responding police department’s control center and dispatched officers.

For more information about the surveillance services offered by Stealth Monitoring, contact us today at 214-341-0123 or www.StealthMonitoring.com.

In the past decade, more and more bank robbers have traded in the protection of a black ski mask for the privacy of a computer screen. Data released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation shows that while bank robberies nationwide are dropping at a speed that far exceeds the average national crime rate, complaints of Internet crime in 2011 were five times what they were 10 years prior.

High Risk, Low Reward

 
Bank robbery has been on the decline since the 1990s, when banks started stepping up their security measures and federal sentencing guidelines were revamped. And as an increasing number of banking transactions are performed online, thieves are seeing cybercrime as a more lucrative option.

The FBI said that bank robberies in 2012 resulted in a total of $29.5 million lost, or $7,600 per heist (which is down from $12,400 per heist in 1997), while the American Bankers Association estimated that robbers got away with a staggering $1.8 billion in check and debit-card fraud in 2010 alone.

Fight Crime by Protecting your Property

 
If your business has been having trouble with theft or other types of crime in recent years, then you should consider investing in the live video surveillance services provided by Stealth Monitoring. As opposed to on-site guards, who cannot be in two places at once, and alarm-based systems that are purely reactive, Stealth Monitoring takes a proactive approach to security. Our technicians monitor multiple live video streams and have been trained to identify suspicious activity, giving us a chance to alert the police before a situation has a chance to escalate. To find out how Stealth Monitoring’s live security video monitoring can help you, contact us today.

As Security Info Watch has reported, the Freedonia Group, an international business research firm, has released a study that estimates that the global private contract security industry is on pace to reach $244 billion by 2016—a growth rate of 7.4% per year. Within the United States, the industry is expected to see a 5.4% annual growth to $64.5 billion by the same year.

Places of Growth

 
Within the category of private contract security, the Freedonia Group has included security systems integration, alarm monitoring, guard services, and security consulting, among others. While contract guard services support the majority of the market and are expected to account for more than half of all industry revenue in the next three years, it is the alarm monitoring services sector that is projected to grow the fastest.

As far as countries as a whole are concerned, the United States, expected to account for one-fifth of global demand between 2011 and 2016, is responsible for consuming the largest percentage of security services. Other fast-growing markets located in developing parts of Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East, as well as China, India, and Brazil, should account for as much as 20% of global growth combined.

Factors Driving Demand

 
David Petina, an analyst with the Freedonia Group, commented that in many places, the demand for private guard services will increase as public trust in the industry continues to grow. He noted that security “becomes something greater than a protection racket for the military/police forces kind of muscling in and saying ‘ok, were going to get a little extra revenue here on the side’ and it becomes a more professional service.”

Other factors include an increase in urbanization, the threat of terrorism and crime, distrust in public safety measures, and a growing middle class that can afford such services. This is reflected in the report’s speculation that the strongest gains will be seen in the smaller residential construction sector, though it will not overtake the commercial and industrial facilities sector.

Live Video Monitoring Solutions

 
If you are interested in hiring a private security service to protect your property, look no further than Stealth Monitoring. Unlike traditional alarm-based services, we take a proactive approach to your security. Our control room operators are trained to monitor live video feeds for suspicious activity, and we can stop threats before they have a chance to escalate. For more information about our live video surveillance services and their effectiveness in comparison to more common guard services, visit StealthMonitoring.com.

Stealth Monitoring is proud to announce that on March 7, we were chosen from among over 100 contestants to be honored by the Entrepreneurial Insurance Alliance (EIA) and MarketScout for our victory in the EIA’s “Shark Tank” competition at the Entrepreneurial Insurance Symposium.

About the Competition

 
Every year, the Symposium provides insurers, intermediaries, and agents within the insurance industry with an opportunity to come together to discuss and share new, relevant concepts and ideas. As part of the event, the EIA hosts a shark-tank-style competition in order to find and recognize the most innovative ideas that are being implemented with the intent of improving the industry as a whole.

More than 100 companies submitted entries to the 2012 contest in Dallas last September, and Stealth Monitoring was chosen as one of only six to face the shark tank. The panel consisted of both industry experts and previous winners, and each participant was given the chance to make a brief presentation before answering rapid-fire questions.

Live Video Monitoring Reduces Occurrences of Crime

 
Chosen as the winner from among those six contestants, Stealth Monitoring was recognized for its innovative, proactive live video monitoring technology and analytics engine, which deters security incidents throughout the country on a nightly basis while still reducing the cost of security.

Our technicians are trained to recognize suspicious activity as events unfolds, giving them time to alert the police and reduce the risk of damage before the situation has a chance to escalate, and our state-of-the-art technology can capture high-quality images of the entire event to substantiate official records and improve the chances of identifying the perpetrator. To learn more about how the live video monitoring security services offered by Stealth Monitoring can help protect your property, contact us today.

 
A Texas Advisory Council on Arson (ATAC) is an advisory body for the State Fire Marshall. The council is composed of insurance officials, prosecution and law enforcement officials, fire investigators, and various industrial representatives who are dedicated to working within their industries to combat the arson problem in Texas with the ultimate goals of raising awareness and influencing policies and lawmakers. ATAC is an effective way to aggregate the specific knowledge present within each representative group and combine it for the greater good.

Stealth Monitoring’s own David Charney is scheduled to present at ATAC’s upcoming quarterly meeting on March 28th, 2013. ATAC’s interest in Stealth’s live monitoring services was sparked through the January Catch of the Month video, which can be accessed below.

In the video, surveillance footage shows an arson suspect lighting a fire in a dumpster behind a shopping center and walking away, leaving the fire to grow. This suspicious activity was witnessed in real time by one of Stealth Monitoring’s trained operators, who immediately notified the local police. Within eight minutes, police were on the scene, the arsonist was apprehended, and the fire was put out before any damage was done.

Protect Your Property against Arson, Theft, and Vandalism

 
At Stealth Monitoring, we take a proactive approach to video surveillance. Our technicians are trained to identify suspicious activity; they can catch criminals in the act and have police on the scene before a threat has a chance to escalate. To find out more about how Stealth Monitoring can protect your property from falling victim to arson, call us today.
 

 
Recent IMS Research lead to the development of an infographic depicting 10 trends in video surveillance to look out for in 2013. Here’s a brief rundown of the predictions:

1. Wireless video streaming from an on-site camera back to a control-room monitor
 
2. Double-digit growth of the video surveillance equipment market in India
 
3. Simple cameras and products that are easy to use and maintain
 
4. Intelligent video surveillance that can process information and recognize suspicious events
 
5. Private cloud-based infrastructures for enterprise surveillance systems
 
6. Improved image quality will become a focus of manufacturers
 
7. Enhanced remote video applications that allow you to monitor videos from a number of platforms
 
8. Chinese companies looking to broaden their markets in the West
 
9. Vertical integration of surveillance vendors, offering design, installation, service, and maintenance services
 
10. Compilation and use of analytics and meta-data from video feeds as Big Data.
 
In short, 2013 will see the video surveillance industry as a whole progressing toward easy-to-use setups that provide higher-quality images and wireless, remote streaming of video feeds.
 
At Stealth Monitoring, we do our best to stay ahead of the game by making use of the latest in security technology. Our live video monitoring service, in which our highly trained personnel proactively watches video feeds for suspicious activity, greatly reduces the potential for theft and can mitigate threats before they have a chance to escalate. For more information on how Stealth Monitoring’s live video surveillance services can help protect your business, contact www.stealthmonitoring.com today.