b'preserves a guests dignity when we dont searchLearnings and considerationsevery bag by hand.T his monumental transition has not been The basic KARM guidelines remain in place.without challenges. However, the early Disruptive and noncompliant guests still mustresults speak for themselves. There have have conversations about their behavior and maybeen fewer program pauses (KARMs term be asked to leave. However, we have shifted ourfor suspensions, loss of services, and criminal focus from punishment to a restorative justicetrespasses), an increase in voluntary turnover approach, bringing people back into KARM asof weapons, and fewer incidents that require quickly as possible while also addressing thelaw enforcement involvement.underlying issues for their behavior. Why is this working? First, our staff share our values. KARM is able to hire based on organizational val-Leveragingues and can make personnel decisions according to the Technology best fit, instead of accepting whichever guard was assigned to a post. As staff, Why advanced systems are worth the price tag Guest Hospitality Team Members can take opportu-KARM was using an antiquated video system composed of traditional networknities to pray with guests video recorders and cameras that recorded motion, but no sound. Once anand share the gospel with incident happened, it took hours to find and pull the video, and security teamthem. And as staff, these members used it only as a reactive tool.team members are able to When we changed our system to Verkada, which hasfacilitate a warm handoff to true video analytics, it became a proactive solution!other departments of KARM We were able to find incidents in five minutes orwhen greater resources are less, we could use the facial recognition to findneeded, ensuring that guests specific individuals within hours of video, and mostreceive the most appropriate cameras allowed us tocare and assistance.record sound, too. TheWe are able to have AI search feature evenbetter communication allowed us to programand relationships with the facial recognition feature to alert us if a knownguests, often de-escalating violent individual was in proximity to our building.situations before they A system such as Verkada requires an upfrontbecome unmanageable, investment. But leveraging technology is a great wayand even avoiding conflict to reduce the overall operational budget and savealtogether. Our guests feel your security team members valuable time, all whileseen and heard due to increasing the safety of those in your building.having a guest-centered and solution-focused, not 30 WWW.CITYGATENETWORK.ORG JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2025'