Last week, five people in Florida were stabbed while at work. In California, a disgruntled employee is accused of threatening an attack on his place of work. These incidents follow the workplace mass shooting in Virginia Beach this past spring.

It’s a complex issue with no single answer; prevention and protecting your employees require a multifaceted approach. For example, employee training programs (whereby people are taught how to respond to acts of workplace violence), are emerging as one answer. In addition, states like California and Illinois are working on legislation. Physical security measures that include smart security products are another answer. They can not only help protect your employees from these and other types of threats, they can also have a positive impact on your organization’s cybersecurity efforts, employee theft, inventory control, and so on. And when it comes to these physical security strategies, measures, and technologies, situational awareness—that is, the ability to see what’s happening in your building and to predict what may happen next—is paramount.

Human operators, however, may find it difficult to monitor the increasing number of video channels that are typical of today’s surveillance systems. Thus, video analytics have quickly become a key element in today’s security applications. It isn’t enough to simply record what’s going on in your facility. Video analytics are designed to enhance your situational awareness and by combining your video management system with, for example, license plate recognition software. Together, this solution can analyze the scene surrounding your building and recognize when a vehicle has circled your campus repeatedly; security operators will be alerted to this situation and can respond accordingly.

Beyond video surveillance, a comprehensive, intelligent physical security information systems (PSIM) can seamlessly consolidate all of your safety and security systems to help you achieve true situational awareness for your entire organization. From access control and intrusion detection to fire and life safety, you can take advantage of a single, intelligent interface to optimize decision making and incident management.

In other words, smart security products with video analytics can work together to detect potential threats before they happen, improving your organization’s situational awareness and allowing you to take a proactive approach to your security operations.