Maintain surveillance of individuals or establishments
Little of this can be handed to software today.
This happens in the physical world, so software agents do not touch it. Automation here means robotics and machinery, which is a different market from the one mapped on this site, on a much slower clock.
| How automatable | Barely automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Physical, manual and inspection work |
| Jobs that do it | 10 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | None |
| O*NET activity | Monitoring Processes, Materials, or Surroundings (4.A.1.a.2) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 10 occupations that perform it.
- Identify, investigate, or resolve security breaches.
- Monitor closed-circuit television cameras.
- Monitor conduct of prisoners in housing unit, or during work or recreational activities, according to established policies, regulations, and procedures, to prevent escape or violence.
- Maintain surveillance of establishments to obtain identifying information on suspects.
- Monitor, note, report, and investigate suspicious persons and situations, safety hazards, and unusual or illegal activity in patrol area.
- Monitor transit areas and conduct security checks to protect railroad properties, patrons, and employees.
- Act as oversight or security agents for management or customers.
- Watch for potentially dangerous persons whose pictures are posted at checkpoints.
- Perform covert surveillance of areas susceptible to loss, such loading docks, distribution centers, or warehouses.
- Monitor passenger behavior to identify threats to the safety of the crew and other passengers.
- Perform undercover assignments and maintain surveillance, including monitoring authorized wiretaps.
What we would actually use
Nothing in our landscape addresses this work. That is the honest answer rather than a padded list: this activity needs a person present, or a machine rather than a software agent.
Nothing on this site applies. Automation here is robotics and machinery, a different market on a much slower clock, and no software subscription moves it.
Chosen for the cheapest thing that does the job, not the best funded. Nothing on this site is sponsored, and the full landscape is there when you want to disagree with us.
How people actually do it
No workflow names this activity yet, but these automate the same kind of work, with the prompts to paste and what to keep for yourself.
Who does this work
10 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Correctional Officers and Jailers
- Detectives and Criminal Investigators
- First-Line Supervisors of Security Workers
- Flight Attendants
- Gambling Surveillance Officers and Gambling Investigators
- Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers
- Retail Loss Prevention Specialists
- Security Managers
- Transit and Railroad Police
- Transportation Security Screeners
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Monitor safety or security of work areas, facilities, or properties”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
Method. The activity, its taxonomy placement and the occupations that perform it come straight from the public-domain O*NET 30.3 database. The automatability band is ours: we map each of O*NET’s 41 generalized work activities to how much of its output current software can produce, assuming a person still reviews and owns the result. It is a coarse three-way judgment on purpose. A precise-looking percentage here would be invented.