Using technology for crime prevention is far more than video monitoring and alarm systems; those alone can only indicate that a crime has occurred, not prevent it. Preventing crime takes technology, tactics, and highly-skilled human intervention, all rolled into one.

That, plus more, is the niche that Elite Interactive Solutions has carved out for itself.

Let’s look at it two ways, from the criminals’ perspective.

They see video surveillance and know police might be called, or they may be recorded by the security system. Maybe there is an alarm activation, but you can still slip away before officers arrive. That is not crime prevention.

Now let’s take a slightly different look at that scenario. Imagine you are a criminal sneaking onto a car lot late at night, or maybe a power substation to steal copper wire. There is no security guard. Sure, there are cameras, but there is time to get away.

But, what if those well-placed cameras are connected to a human in a command center, maybe a former military or law enforcement professional, who has been well trained on how to “voice-down” a suspect? In the dark of night, a firm, authoritative voice calls out to you, verbally reacts to what you are doing, and can even call you out by what you are wearing or holding.

In the meantime, police are already responding.

That is crime prevention.

That is what Elite Interactive Solutions offers.

Elite, which started in 2007 with a specific mission of being a guard replacement solution, is in the crime prevention business, not the after-the-fact crime incident reporting business.

Michael Zatulov, CEO, Elite Interactive Solutions, explained that, in the last five years, the security industry has split electronic security into different subsets and specialties. There is now about a $50-billion market in the electronic security and remote guarding space.

“The RVM (remote video monitoring) market plays a small part, and crime prevention, true crime prevention, is a fraction of it. So, the lion's share of the security market is going towards the DIY and the video verification markets, DIY being your average Ring camera,” Zatulov explained.

True crime prevention requires sophistication, he said, and that's where Elite is primarily positioned.

Protecting Through Crime Prevention

Elite specializes in the enterprise market. Its customers are vehicle lots, storage lots, multi-family housing, utilities, and public sector customers.

“Our mission is to be able to offer real crime prevention in a large setting,” Zatulov said. “We're very passionate about our approach to preventing crime, and that's a major differentiation of our company from the rest of the industry. There's a lot of momentum on the remote video monitoring side to offer support to law enforcement, but to be truly in crime prevention, there are certain steps an organization has to follow to ensure professionalism.”

He said the cornerstone of that is technology has made Elite better, more efficient, but it still has never eliminated and won't, the ability to look around the corner to think creatively, constructively about what's going on.

To do that, Zatulov said, you need to partner AI and technology with the people, because at the end of the day, it's a human response that determines your success in preventing that crime.

Better Crime Prevention Than a Guard

The types of businesses Elite protects are those where a guard has been ineffective, or the crime is such that it requires a higher level of security than the guard is able to provide

The mandate of a guard is to observe and report, Zatulov said.

“Ours is to observe, report, document, and also have an action, a voice-down by professional agent,” he said.

That agent is an observer of the event, trained to deal with emergency situations, and knows what happens when they're able to communicate more effectively. They are well-versed in what goes on at the guarded site, the functions of law enforcement and dispatch, and how it all works together.

“The result merits the cost and the effectiveness of our solution,” he added.

Evolution of Remote Guarding

Remote guarding took a long time to become a major market, Zatulov explained, “It's evolution.”

It really began with technological improvements. In 2007, when Elite started, there were very few resources dedicated to crime prevention or machine vision in the marketplace.

“As technology evolved and AI started to become more mainstream, Elite adopted it, along with several other technologies, in fact, 16 total technologies and methodologies to identify what we're looking at (on video),” Zatulov said.

“Well, first of all, it's not just a camera, and it's not just the logic behind it. It's not the AI. AI is just a feature. There's a lot that goes into it,” he continued. “There's forensic analysis of the site. We're looking for areas of vulnerability. We're looking for a range. We're looking for lighting conditions. We're looking at the weather conditions. We're looking for areas of previous crimes, neighborhood crimes. These things need to be taken into account because you're trying to create a solution, a response, not a better widget.”

He said Elite looks at crime prevention as a holistic process of ‘What does it take to actually identify a crime across millions of streams?’”

In 2025, Elite recorded about 200 million hours of footage and was responsible for approximately 2,500 arrests and detainments, all coordinated from Elite’s headquarters in downtown Los Angeles, California.

“The only way we're able to accomplish that without having an army of people is by setting up our systems correctly and interfacing with law enforcement in the most appropriate way,” Zatulov said.

“Some of our competitors advertise that it takes them about two minutes to detect a bad guy right after the initial alert. Is it really a bad guy? Or is it somebody who's trespassing? The easiest thing that any security company can say is, there's a trespasser on campus. Anyone's a trespasser. Trespasser is a word that could describe every type of crime possible,” he said.

So, what is the significance of just reporting a trespasser?

When you call law enforcement, you'll be routed to a non-essential or an essential line. If you go into the non-essential line for a trespasser, Zatulov said, that's going to be a half-hour wait. And when you're dealing with a crime in progress, seconds matter.

“So, with us, our mandate is to get in front of a dispatcher within seven seconds of the detection of the crime. Anything more, any number in the double digits of seconds, means you're not going to get to a successful outcome,” he said. “We're really more of a service. It’s all about how we interface. And looking around the corners really makes the difference between success and failure in crime prevention business.”

Working Closely with Law Enforcement

The relationship with and the understanding of a specific department’s capabilities, responses, and dispatch operations cannot wait to be developed at the point where a potential criminal is detected. It takes more. It takes work in advance.

Elite works to secure professional endorsements and build relationships with law enforcement based on its proven success.

“So, when we go into a new geographical location, we have a law enforcement advisory board made up of former law enforcement officials who are retired, usually ones who are able to call in to that specific area, describe what we do,” he detailed.

“Then we have a special direct number to law enforcement. Or if we have to call the regular line, it's all about communicating what the event actually is to get routed to the appropriate resources. We have found success in both,” Zatulov said.

He also sees the rise of Real Time Crime Centers (RTCC) as a “step in the right” direction in the joint mission with Elite to prevent crime.

Stopping the Bad Guy: Examples

Zatulov shared several examples of success to illustrate how Elite handles situations and works closely with responding agencies.

Active Shooter Response

One was the report of an active shooter in Northern California.

“It was a notification that we received that there's something happening on site during the day at a school, and we had strategically positioned cameras. What we were able to do is provide feedback and intelligence to law enforcement,” he recalled.

Zatulov said typically, during an active shooter incident, there can be four or five hours of waiting because nobody knows what's going on. “

“With a properly set-up system, we know exactly where things are because the interactive part of interactive solutions is identifying exactly where the flow of traffic is,” he said. “Most of the time, active shooter incidents are misunderstood, meaning that the public tends to go at the active shooter, as opposed to other areas where they are safer.”

Fortunately, he explained, it turned out to be a false alarm.

“But generally speaking, it showed the effectiveness of our system in corresponding with law enforcement officers to assess the situation and allowing people to get to safety. That one was a very meaningful one,” he shared.

Thefts in the Automotive Industry

So, every night, Elite averages between 10 and 20 actual arrests or detainments. Zatulov said it takes less than two minutes to steal a catalytic converter from a car, and car lots can become targets.

Just such a scenario played out recently at a dealership.

“A couple of guys tried to walk through the perimeter, which was blocked by our proactive response,” he said, as he explained how Elite’s agent called out to the individuals, described what they were wearing, and relayed information to law enforcement. “Police officers showed up about three minutes into the incident and apprehended the suspects.”

Copper Thefts in Downtown LA

He also shared an example of Elite’s crime-prevention success at a power substation in downtown Los Angeles, one that he said powers the entire downtown grid.

“A couple of guys wanted to come in there and steal some copper. Middle of the night showed up with bolt cutters. As soon as they saw that there were no guards, they took out wire cutters, came up to the gate,” Zatulov said. “As soon as they approached the gate, we voiced them down, told them to depart.”

He said law enforcement responded immediately. Elite watched as the suspects ran back to their vehicle, but law enforcement showed up a couple of minutes later. It led to apprehension.

Crime Prevention After a Disaster

Traditional crime prevention and response measures can become even more challenging following a disaster, when roads are blocked, infrastructure is damaged or destroyed, and nothing is normal.

Zatulov understands that on a business level, but also on a personal level, as a resident in the area impacted by the Palisades Fire of 2025.

“I spent a lot of time working with the communities and other partners, players in the electronic security space, plus the integration space and the local law enforcement, where we had conversations with the community and public officials trying to bring disaster recovery to the city after the infrastructure collapsed,” he said.

And in the aftermath of a disaster, one has to understand how the police response is altered.

“One thing to note is that there is no police response after a disaster, and that's because law enforcement relies on civilians to call 911, to let people know that there's a crime in progress, or to report what they're seeing,” Zatulov explained. “There's no way without electronic security or a very serious presence from law enforcement that crime prevention can occur. So, that's a very personal topic, and one that I'm pretty passionate about.”

Finding Success in Crime Prevention

Zatulov said to be in the crime prevention business, not just remote video monitoring, you have to have four things:

• The technology to reduce false alarms
• The individuals and the training in the command center
• Cybersecurity
• Law enforcement’s understanding and support

That final point is crucial, but Elite has it covered, starting with a law enforcement advisory board that monitors its operations and provides feedback. Plus, Elite’s command center is set up to work well with local law enforcement.

“First, it's led by a decorated former law enforcement and military officer who basically has the ABC process, which is keep it super simple. Our manager is a former trainer for LAPD dispatch and a former police officer at the same time,” said Zatulov. “So you're bringing that culture to our command center.”

Zatulov said success comes down to the agent, who has three critical mission objectives.

• They have to be able to do a proactive voice down to describe somebody effectively with a commanding presence.
• If the situation escalates to a point where a law enforcement response is needed, the agent needs to clearly communicate the incident, description of suspects, path of travel, and be able to report it all appropriately to drive an action.
• Then, the agent has to close out the event and document what happened. That is important so later when the detective wants additional information, they'll be able to pull it correctly.

“The agents go through a very rigorous training. We have about half the company in the command center, and those agents there are both supervised and trained in the most professional manner,” Zatulov explained. 

“To answer your question, ‘What does it take?’ It takes a lot of investment into our team, and because of the technology that we deploy, we're able to invest into our team more than we have to fix or troubleshoot the tech. So, the better the technology, the more time we have with the human, and that human is what makes all the difference in professional response,” he concluded.