It seems safe to say the Brooklyn Cooperative FederalCredit Union was less than satisfied with its previous securityfirm.

One issue the $17 million, 6,400-member Brooklyn Cooperative inNew York City had with the company was that it failed to deviatefrom its traditional method of securing financial institutions inorder to meet the credit union's specific needs, said CEO SamiraRajan.

That was crucial, since the credit union offers a range of otherservices, including tax preparation during tax season. Itnecessitates extended hours for thousands of members duringevenings and weekends, unlike the credit union's daytime schedule.Customers of the tax service use a side entrance to the creditunion rather than the front door, which is closed at the end of thebusiness day.

However, the security system operated as if the facility ran onfixed, regular hours, said Rajan of Brooklyn Cooperative, which says it's New York City's fastestgrowing credit union and serves two of the borough's mostunderbanked and lowest income neighborhoods.

Consequently, when anyone entered the premises outside of thecredit union's normal hours, it wasn't unusual when it triggered analarm–much to the chagrin of both the credit union and police,explained Rajan.

“The police got mad, and I couldn't blame them. The credibilityof the credit unions suffers. The police might have been slower torespond next time the alarm went off,” she said.

On top of that, the sub-par quality of video yielded by thesecurity firm's camera often hampered law enforcement's ability toidentify and capture suspected criminals, as did the system'slimited storage capacity, she continued.

Furthermore, the credit union's previous security company'ssystem included panic buttons. Rajan explained that its insurerdiscouraged their use in order to minimize the possibility ofpolice encountering perpetrators in the facility's lobby, creatingpotential hostage situations.

According to the FBI website, there were about 400 robberies andburglaries of CUs nationwide in 2011. Overall, more than $38million was stolen during more than 5,000 robberies and burglariesof financial institutions.

In any event, not surprisingly, perhaps, Brooklyn Cooperativerecently upgraded its security system, choosing Avigilon ofVancouver, British, Columbia, and its security and surveillancesystem.

Based, partly, on the recommendation of its insurer, the creditunion sought a firm that would be less obsessed with hours of entryand contacting authorities without verifying whether seeminglysuspicious activity at the credit union actually was anythingirregular, said Rajan.

 “All our previous [provider] did was call the policewhen the alarm went off – even if it turned out to be a waterleak.” Better meeting requirements set by the insurance providerultimately lowers premium costs, she added.

Rajan was particularly struck by the focus insurance companiesplace on capabilities like high-quality video. “They want to knowthat you have identification that will hold up in court,” theBrooklyn Cooperative CEO said.

For instance, instead of mostly fuzzy, dotty images, insurerswant you to have tape that will show a perpetrator's height andface. “You can have all kinds of security in banks, something willstill happen. The rest is old school,” said Rajan.

Among the software features of Avigilon Control Centerand HD cameras is an easy interface, the credit union CEO said, aswell as offsite access through ACC Mobile for multiplepeople to monitor activities, which helps reduce investigationtimes, false alarms and the need to be on-site 24/7; andcrash-proof servers to keep information, video and systemsoperating with backup, preventing the loss of important data orsystem crashes.

Avigilon also focuses on providing high-resolution zoom inability to gain full body visuals. Moreover, it yields more thanfour months' storage capacity–considerably more than the creditunion's previous provider, Rajan said.

Already, Brooklyn Cooperative has seen drastic results,including the resolution and recovery of stolen funds in less than10 minutes. Rick Ramsay, senior project manager, attributed that tohis company's intelligent video that lets users find specifictimes, incidents and visuals, and then share, bookmark and sendvideo to easily pinpoint potential suspects and help solveincidents.

“We often hear reports back that their previous systems were socumbersome that they weren't even using them because it was takingthem hours to find a piece of video so they were trying to usesecondary sources to solve investigations,” said Ramsay.

For them, it's not always merely about responding to incidencesfor them, but knowing a false alarm is  a falsealarm.”

Thomas Lekan, Cleveland-based owner of Thomas J. Lekan SecurityConsulting LLC and an expert witness, said there's little doubtthat the newest cameras create clear images that help inthe identification of robbers.

“Because the identification is such akey piece of evidence, I think it significantly helps in quickercaptures,” he said.

The investment in security varies as many CUs have legacysystems that still work and are maintained, Lekan added. He said aclient of his, a credit union in Texas, includes the latesttechnology into new and replacement cameras with great results.

“I'd venture to say if the CU has the money, it will invest innew cameras,” especially given that the technology is so far aheadof five years ago and the reliability of the equipment is so good.“Doing so is a no brainer.”