When you think of school safety and security, what’s one of the first tools that come to mind? Surveillance cameras, right? Surveillance cameras are nearly everywhere within a school’s landscape. You can spot them in hallways and stairwells, cafeterias and auditoriums, classrooms and athletic fields, even parking lots and buses. According to the National Center of Education Statistics, today more than 80% of public schools and more than 94% of high schools in the U.S. rely on cameras as the cornerstone of their safety and security programs.
Initially their role was to capture forensic evidence that could be reviewed post-event. But over the years, schools have become more sophisticated, proactive camera systems users – viewing events in real-time from security operations centers or pushing live video out to officers and first responders to enhance their situational awareness. They’re adding intelligent analytics on the cameras and in the operating system for early detection of threats and problems.
With all these smarter cameras in place, what more coverage could schools possibly need? To answer this question, we need to look at the role of the school resource officer (SRO). Whether this person is a security officer or local law enforcement, their job is to interact daily with individuals – some of whom might be belligerent, emotionally charged or threatening. Because these students, parents, or bystanders might be whipping out their smartphones to record the confrontation, the school office needs an equivalent tool to ensure the encounter is accurately captured and can’t be manipulated post-event. It’s a matter of transparency, accountability and liability, not only for the school but for all parties involved.
This is where body-worn cameras come into play. Body-worn cameras arm schools with “boots on the ground” video in its unbiased and raw form. Now school administrators can see, hear and potentially “feel” the situation on the front lines from the perspective of the SRO.
What is a Body-Worn Camera?
Body-worn cameras are wearable recording devices that can be clipped onto clothing. The video is often saved with time and date stamps.
There are several components to the solution: the camera, the mounting system, the docking station, the system controller and the video storage system.
- Camera: Top of the line high-resolution cameras weigh less than typical cellphones. They record at 30 frames per second, creating a fluid record of events. Some cameras include features like wide dynamic range for capturing clear images even in scenes with bright sunlight and dark shadows. Their wide field of view not only captures the close encounter but other activity in proximity to the event. The camera battery is generally capable of recording up to 12 hours of video on a single charge.
- Mounting system: The most flexible mounting systems offer multiple options for securely attaching the camera to various articles of clothing (belts, vests, body harnesses, etc.).
- Docking station: The docking station provides the mechanism for offloading the video from the camera and recharging the camera battery. Docking stations come in single and multiple bay versions.
- System controller: The system controller works in conjunction with the docking station, storing the video temporarily until it can be uploaded to the school’s video management system or sent to storage in the cloud.
Body-worn cameras are so intuitive to operate that there’s virtually no learning curve for the user. It’s simply a matter of hitting the front-facing activation button and the camera begins to record. Some of the more sophisticated body-worn cameras automatically turn on and start recording into a pre-buffer. Once the user hits the activation button to begin taping an encounter they want to store in memory, the previous 90 seconds of buffering are automatically added to the recording as an extra security measure.
Equally important, the recording is tamper-proof. The video remains untouched by human intervention from the time it’s recorded in-camera, through offloading into temporary storage when the camera is docked until it’s uploaded into the video management system or cloud. In some more advanced body-worn camera solutions, the data remains encrypted through the entire journey.
Preventing a False Narrative
What makes body-worn cameras invaluable in a school setting is their unbiased point of view. They don’t favor one side or the other. They simply provide an accurate record of events as they unfold. The footage they capture helps all parties confirm or refute assertions, clarify or discredit interpretations and get to the core of disputes.
It stops false accusations in their tracks. And it holds all parties accountable for their actions. But more than that, having the security officer wearing a body camera can serve as a deterrent to bad behavior – both from the officer and the people they encounter. There have been many cases where officers credited their body cameras for preventing events from escalating into something far worse because everyone was aware that the camera was observing the situation.
It’s these kinds of endorsements that are convincing schools that body-worn cameras have an important role to play in creating safer and more secure learning environments.
Improving Officer Training
Body camera footage can serve another purpose as well. One of the most effective training methods is to teach by example. Showing a new security officer or trainee actual video from past events can help school security managers reinforce the training techniques they’re trying to promote. When a training video includes actual body camera footage from their own department officers, it generally creates a long-lasting impression. In most cases, it’s a far more effective approach than simply lecturing with a PowerPoint presentation.
Body-Worn Camera Adoption in Schools?
While body-worn cameras have become standard issue for many police departments across the United States, application of the technology in the education sector is still in its infancy. Universities and colleges security departments are likely to embrace this technology well before K-12 school districts begin outfitting their own SROs. But I predict that body-worn cameras will eventually become the norm for educational institutions as a way of protecting their SROs, de-escalating confrontations, managing risks and avoiding litigation. And that makes for a great return on investment.
About the author: Bruce A. Canal, CPP, is the Segment Development Manager for K-12 and Higher Education for Axis Communication, Inc. He was formerly the Director of Physical Security for the Orange County Public School District in Orlando and an officer of the Indiana State Police. He can be reached at [email protected].