Blinded by Graffiti -  vandalism and destruction of property are not the only concerns at schools. Sadly, theft, assaults and campus shootings are also important issues.

Blinded by Graffiti

Geutebruck helps secure Florida school district

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.

Featured

New Products

  • FEP GameChanger

    FEP GameChanger

    Paige Datacom Solutions Introduces Important and Innovative Cabling Products GameChanger Cable, a proven and patented solution that significantly exceeds the reach of traditional category cable will now have a FEP/FEP construction.

  • EasyGate SPT and SPD

    EasyGate SPT SPD

    Security solutions do not have to be ordinary, let alone unattractive. Having renewed their best-selling speed gates, Cominfo has once again demonstrated their Art of Security philosophy in practice — and confirmed their position as an industry-leading manufacturers of premium speed gates and turnstiles.

  • Luma x20

    Luma x20

    Snap One has announced its popular Luma x20 family of surveillance products now offers even greater security and privacy for home and business owners across the globe by giving them full control over integrators’ system access to view live and recorded video. According to Snap One Product Manager Derek Webb, the new “customer handoff” feature provides enhanced user control after initial installation, allowing the owners to have total privacy while also making it easy to reinstate integrator access when maintenance or assistance is required. This new feature is now available to all Luma x20 users globally. “The Luma x20 family of surveillance solutions provides excellent image and audio capture, and with the new customer handoff feature, it now offers absolute privacy for camera feeds and recordings,” Webb said. “With notifications and integrator access controlled through the powerful OvrC remote system management platform, it’s easy for integrators to give their clients full control of their footage and then to get temporary access from the client for any troubleshooting needs.”