Investigating Incidents with Aimee
How to Use Aimee to Rebuild Timelines, Explain Denied Access and Search Video
Aimee can rebuild what happened at a door or on camera in seconds, pulling together access logs, alerts and the audit trail. This article shows how to run an investigation and how to check what Aimee tells you.
1. Start with the Door, Date and Time
Give Aimee everything she needs in one prompt:
"Investigate the denied access events at [door] on [date] around [time window]. Who or what was involved, why were they denied, and what should I do next?"
Aimee rebuilds the timeline (for example, 7 events: 4 granted, 3 denied), groups the denials by cause, such as an unknown card or a card-format misread, checks whether any alerts fired, notes device problems like an offline panel, and suggests next steps. She keeps what the log shows separate from what she infers.
2. Confirm with Follow-Ups
A first answer can state a guess as fact. Ask a targeted follow-up to confirm:
"Which of those cards belongs to [person]? Is card [number] assigned to anyone?"
Aimee checks the audit trail and corrects herself if needed, for example finding that a card "not enrolled" actually belongs to a user whose card was deactivated earlier.
IMPORTANT: Always confirm important findings before acting on them: "Are you sure? Check the audit trail."
3. Search Video
"Search video from the last 7 days for a person wearing [clothing]. Which cameras, when, and show footage."
Short prompts work when the time window is tight:
"Show me a bald guy today."
In testing, this returned 10 verified matches at 85–95% confidence across the lobby, hallways and lunch room, and Aimee noted they were probably at least two different people, based on clothing.
- Aimee returns matches across cameras, each with a time, description and confidence score, and links sightings that are probably the same person.
- Click the play button on a row to watch the footage in the panel. Use the Matches and Dismissed tabs, and Load More for older results.
- Narrow the search with follow-ups: "only the parking lot", "after 5 pm", "also wearing dark pants".
Tip: Narrow beats broad. Over a long window, such as 15 days, Aimee may find candidate detections she can't verify. She won't present them as matches; she lists the candidate cameras and times for you to check. Shorten the time window or name the cameras to get verified results.
4. Vehicles, Plates and Timelines
| Goal | Prompt |
|---|---|
| Vehicles by appearance (even without a plate read) | Show red sedans on any camera in the last 3 days. |
| A specific plate | Has plate ABC123 been seen in the last 7 days? |
| Everything on one camera | Investigate everything near the Exit to parking lot camera between 1 PM and 3 PM yesterday. |
| Where a person was | Where was jane@company.com today? (Door events plus face sightings, merged into one timeline.) |
| Watchlist hits | Show watchlist detections at the Lobby camera this week. |
What video can't tell you
- Clothing can't identify a person. To name someone, attach a face image or ask about an enrolled user: "Search for a person in a white shirt on the Lobby camera Oct 22–23. If I attach a face crop, match it to enrolled users."
- Offline cameras recorded nothing. Ask which cameras were offline first, then search only cameras that were connected on those dates.
- A short prompt like "Show me a bald guy" works with a tight window ("today"), but hair alone can't separate people. Add clothing, a camera and a time: "Show a bald man in a dark polo on the Lobby camera between 10 AM and 12 PM today."
5. Tips
- One thing per prompt. "Pull the photos and show the card details" can stall on a "multiple matches" picker. Ask for each separately.
- Snapshots. Access event snapshot photos don't load in Aimee yet. Open the event in Reports › Access Logs to see it.
- Times. Aimee's answers use your local time. If a picker shows a different time, it may be in UTC.
- Next steps. Ask "What should I do next?" to get recommendations, then make changes with confirmation cards. See Making Changes with Aimee.
6. Example Investigation Workflow
- Ask for the timeline at the door and time window.
- Ask who each card belongs to, and why each denial happened.
- Search video for the same time window at nearby cameras.
- Check the person's access: "Who has access to [door]? Flag anything that looks wrong."
- Fix the cause, such as reactivating a card or updating a schedule, through a confirmation card.
Aimee articles: What Is Aimee? · What Aimee Can Do · Asking Aimee Questions · Investigating Incidents with Aimee · Making Changes with Aimee · Bulk Importing Users and Doors with Aimee ·
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