Blinded by Graffiti
Geutebruck helps secure Florida school district
- By Ellen Kreitz
- Nov 01, 2015
It was a sunny morning when
Mick Miller got up to get ready
for work at a large school. He
had a great weekend, and he
was looking forward to the
day; Work at the school was
fun. However, shortly after,
his good mood was ruined when he reached the school
grounds and saw with dismay
that large areas of the facade
of the building and the
entrance area were once again
covered with graffiti. The
school gate was broken and
that weekend someone had
obviously decided to have a
barbeque party in the school
yard, judging by the garbage.
This meant, yet again, that a
great deal of work and significant
expenses would be needed
for repairs and renovation.
The Writing on the Wall
This example is just one of many cases of vandalism
at schools. But, vandalism and
destruction of property are not the only concerns
at schools. Sadly, theft, assaults and
campus shootings are also important issues.
According to an FBI study, the number of
shootings in the United States increased from
an average of 6.4 incidents per year in the
period 2000 to 2006 to 16.4 per year between
2007 and 2013.
These factors prompted the leaders of the
schools in the Sarasota County School District
on the Florida Gulf Coast to take necessary
precautions. The safety of students, faculty
and staff must be prioritized and the best
possible protection provided—a real challenge,
considering that the Sarasota County
Schools operate a total of 52 schools, educate
42,000 students and employ 5,000 teachers
and other employees.
Partner United Security Alliance, certified
by Geutebruck, was commissioned to secure
four high schools and two middle schools at
various locations. The technical design and
equipment for all middle schools and high
schools is already in the planning phase and
will be completed within the next two years.
Getting Professional Help
With United Security Alliance, a professional
partner was chosen with many years of experience
and deep technical knowledge. This
made it possible to provide a solution that is
not only fully mature from a technical perspective
but also provides additional benefits.
All schools are interconnected and are controlled
by a centralized control center, the
Safety & Security Communications Center.
The monitors are running 24/7 and provide
views from multiple cameras at all the
schools. This ensures preventive monitoring
as well as quick assessment, response and, in
the best case, the immediate clarification of
incidents and crimes. At the same time,
school administrators and School Resource
Officers on site can check recordings locally
and directly follow up on incidents.
To provide these services, multiple re_porter,
GeViScope and GeViStore video management
systems were put into use with the existing
analog and IP cameras. At each school
and in the central control center, SpeedView
stations are used as analysis units, from which
the security personnel can access all live
streams and recorded images. All images are
archived for 45 days, placing high demands
on storage capacity. The schools were initially
equipped with 16 cameras 11 years ago.
Today, there are 4,300 cameras.
“Storage was the largest challenge,” said Tim
Butler, security system engineer on telling why
they chose Geutebruck technology. “State
requirements mandate 30 days of storage but
the school district’s goal is to keep at least 35
days’ worth. In the previous system, estimating
storage needs accurately was difficult and Geutebruck
was able to provide what we needed.
There were several systems that were considered
at the enterprise level and Geutebruck fit all the
characteristics that we were looking for. In addition,
the transition from analog to the world of
IP was made easier by Geutebruck. All employees
are trained internally
and the staff can easily
handle the equipment in
the schools.”
This article originally appeared in the November 2015 issue of Security Today.
About the Author
Ellen Kreitz is a member of the Geutebruck team, responsible for media relations.