Under-Staffing & Post Coverage Detection: Guarded Posts
A guarded post is only useful while someone is actually in it. Yet the most common failure is quiet: the guard steps away for ten minutes, the ten becomes forty, and the post sits empty during exactly the shift it was staffed for. Paper sign-in sheets cannot catch this, and reviewing hours of footage afterwards only proves the gap existed – it does not close it.
Under-staffing detection watches the post itself with the cameras you already have. When a position that must be occupied is left empty for longer than you allow, the system alerts while the gap is still open, so a supervisor can act in minutes instead of discovering the hole in next month’s incident review.
What the Rule Watches
You define each guarded post as a zone – a gatehouse desk, a control-room console, a first-aid station, a loading dock where an attendant must be present during operations. For every zone you set the coverage policy: whether at least one person must be present, or a specific minimum, and how long the position may stay vacant before it counts as a breach. During operating hours the rule runs person detection against those zones and compares reality with the policy in real time.
The useful output is not just an alarm but a coverage record. Every post has a timeline of occupied and vacant periods, which turns the end-of-shift question from “was the post manned?” into a checkable fact – and gives you evidence when a contractor claims coverage that did not happen.
Coverage policy follows the roster, not the other way round. Thresholds can be scheduled per shift – a reception desk that must never be empty during business hours, the same desk allowed a closed-lunch window, and a reduced requirement overnight when only the patrol round passes through. Shift changes are handled with a handover grace period so the relief guard walking in does not trigger the alarm meant for a genuine no-show.
How It Works on the Edge
The rule builds on object detection and runs entirely on the edge appliance, so it keeps working through network outages – the situation in which an unmanned post is most dangerous. Absence judgements need dwell logic, the same dwell principle used across video analytics: a guard walking a short round is not an abandonment, so the vacancy timer only starts after the configured grace period and cancels the moment someone returns.
Working With the Rest of the Rule Set
Under-staffing pairs naturally with sleeping on duty detection, which catches the post that is occupied in body but not in function, and with workstation abandonment detection for control rooms where a console must stay attended. Together they answer both failure modes: nobody there, and someone there but not working.
The same cameras keep pulling their weight across the site. Intrusion detection covers the fence line the post is guarding, loitering detection flags the person circling the gatehouse, and abandoned object detection catches the bag left at the entrance while the desk was empty. Where crowds form, crowd gathering detection warns before the queue overwhelms whatever staff are actually present.
Where Sites Use It
Security contractors use it to prove contract compliance across multiple client sites without relying on patrol apps their guards can gamify. Manufacturers apply it to safety-critical stations – a crane operator’s cab, a chemical store that legally requires an attendant. Energy sites run it on substations and control rooms where an empty post during a shift change is a reportable event, and the same cameras cover fall detection in the areas where lone work is most risky.
For the background on how this works, see what is fall detection.
This is one of the topics we cover in more detail in people counting camera.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can it require “at least two people on post”?
Yes. The minimum is a per-zone setting, so one post can demand a single attendant while another – a control room during night shift, say – requires two. The rule alerts when the count stays below the minimum beyond your grace period, not merely when it dips for a second.
Does it work together with sleeping-on-duty detection?
Yes, and they complement each other. Under-staffing handles the empty post; sleeping-on-duty handles the occupied-but-unresponsive one. Running both on the same camera gives you the full picture of post readiness from a single appliance.
What happens when the post is briefly empty?
Nothing, if brief is what you allow. The grace period is yours to set – a guard stretching their legs for three minutes can be acceptable, while the same absence at 3 a.m. may not be. You can also schedule stricter thresholds outside office hours.
Do we need new cameras?
No. The rule runs on existing ONVIF and RTSP streams. If a camera’s angle cannot see the post properly, we will tell you during evaluation – before you spend anything – rather than after the first missed alert.
Next Step
Send us the post layout and the coverage policy each position requires. From the 198+ algorithm library this is configuration, not development – the first demo takes about 7 days where the detection already exists in the library. Start with a Starter Kit at USD 999, or tell us your scenario for a custom build quoted per site.