Operate surveillance equipment to detect suspicious or illegal activities
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 | 4 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | None |
| O*NET activity | Controlling Machines and Processes (4.A.3.a.3) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 4 occupations that perform it.
- Inspect and adjust security equipment to ensure it is operational or to detect evidence of tampering.
- Gather and evaluate information, using tools such as aerial photographs, radar equipment, or sensitive radio equipment.
- Review video surveillance footage.
- Operate detecting devices to screen individuals and prevent passage of prohibited articles into restricted areas.
- Monitor closed-circuit television cameras.
- Operate cameras, radios, or other surveillance equipment to intercept communications or document activities.
- Observe casino or casino hotel operations for irregular activities, such as cheating or theft by employees or patrons, using audio and video equipment and one-way mirrors.
- Inspect and adjust security systems, equipment, or machinery to ensure operational use and to detect evidence of tampering.
- Screen individuals and belongings to prevent passage of prohibited materials using walkthrough detectors, wands, or bag searches.
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
4 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Operate audiovisual or related equipment”. 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.