Arkansas High School Improves Security with Cameras

Schools are some of the most common places for security cameras. Keeping our children safe is more important than anything else in the world. And one school in Corning, Arkansas has learned that lesson well.

In November, Corning High School found three different bomb threats written on a boy's bathroom wall...all in one week. Unfortunately, no one has been charged but law enforcement is still investigating. Fortunately, a week before the bomb threats, cameras were installed in the schools and according School Resource Officer Dwight Brown, have been a helping with the investigation and with other problems.

"Cameras are really a big help," he told a local news station. "You can definitely see a big difference. Last year when we didn't have them you had a lot of people roaming the halls."

Even students agree the school is safer with the added cameras. "They find stuff that some people can't find as if there was a discipline problem and nobody saw it they could find it on the cameras," one eighth grader said.

And a senior in the school said, "We've had vandalism problems in the past and since they show the outside we can really use them."

One teacher said he's noticed less graffiti in the bathrooms and outside the school. Students don't know where all the cameras are located, but for the most part, most of them say they aren't worried about it because they aren't doing anything wrong. One school official says the cameras have helped with "he said, she said" incidents because teachers and administrators now have that information on video.

The cameras aren't just on the high school campus. Two elementary schools have cameras as well. And all of the buses in the district have added cameras too, which has helped take the pressure off of drivers, so they can spend more time driving kids to and from school and less time worrying about who is doing what.

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Oakland Schools Get 750 Security Cameras

It'll soon be harder for delinquent students and would be-criminals to get away with committing a crime in the Oakland School System. At least that's what the school district hopes. A high-powered security system with at least 750 cameras is being implemented in 30 middle schools and high schools in the city. The cameras are supposed to be installed by August 2011.

The district hopes the cameras will cause a reduction in crimes such as defacing of property, and even keep students from cutting class. The camera footage will be linked so that Oakland police and authorized school district staff members can sign in and view it at any time online, even giving them the ability to zoom in if needed. A spokesman for the district said you can see something as small as the insignia on a shoe when the high-quality cameras zoom in.

The high-tech surveillance system will cost about $3 million; half is being paid by the school district and half is coming from a grant from the Department of Justice. According to Michael Moore, Sr., the district's director of procurement, the money had already been set aside for security purposes.

The cameras will be located both inside and outside the schools. They'll watch what's happening in the hallways, gymnasiums, and in the parking lots and streets surrounding the schools. However, they will not be installed in classrooms or bathrooms. Urban Promise Academy principal Mark Triplett said he thinks the cameras are a "great idea." He also said that while he already uses cameras to monitor who comes and goes from the school after-hours, the quality is grainy and unclear. Triplett's middle school is not on the list of schools where cameras will be installed but he says he'd like to see to it that they are.

The first school to receive the cameras was Oakland Technical High School in North Oakland. They were installed there last week. Fred Trotter, the head security officer at the school, has already used the cameras to identify three different students on three separate occasions. One was using illegal drugs on campus, another had a weapon, and another one was defacing school property with graffiti. As word about the cameras spread amongst the student body, it is likely that crime will decrease.

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High Schools Upgrading Camera Security and Access

The desire to provide a safe and secure learning environment for students has always been a top priority for parents, teachers, and staff in school districts across the nation.

Two Chicago school districts have taken this desire into consideration and have opted to upgrade their security camera system to give administrators and security personnel easy access to see whats happening at any given time during or after school hours. This new security system has been installed in Romeoville and Bolingbrook high schools in the Chicago area. Coordinator of safety and security for Valley View School District, Leroy Brown, has deemed these security measures "Necessary" for school security.

"If there was a fight at noon and we wanted to go and review the footage, we would be able to have the capacity to do that right at my desk. It's important. You need to know what's happening in the schools."

This new security system also integrates motion detection and intermittent video recording in key areas throughout the schools. If a student opened a side door of the school to leave or let somebody in, the cameras would begin to record and video would be displayed on the surveillance screens in the security office. These type of cameras and security measures are also effective in key areas of the school such as chemistry labs, athletic rooms, or any other type of area deemed important to keep an eye on. Brown has this to say about the security measures that have been put in place at these high schools.

"It is necessary. We haven't had a lot of problems like that but like anything else you want to prevent it before it happens."

Should these security measures be met with success camera security systems will also be installed at the local middle schools in the area.

Source: suburbanchicagonews.com