School District Layers Security with Advanced Video Surveillance

Lockport City School District is adding video surveillance cameras with the ability to identify possible threats.

• By Sydny Shepard
• May 24, 2018

In the wake of yet another school shooting, many school districts around the country are racing to add security measures to their campuses that might help to avoid another mass casualty situation.

In New York, Lockport City School District is installing 300 new security cameras loaded with advanced software that can recognize people who pose a threat. The software can notify the school's security department if it sees a terminated employee, sex offender, suspended students or someone carrying a gun.

The superintendent of the school district, Michelle Bradley told local news that the new video surveillance will "add another layer of security" to the security measures already in place on ten school district campuses.

The new system is the first security system of its kind in any public school in the United States. Corporate Screening & Investigative Group, LLC is working with Canadian owned SN Technologies to get this system into the Western New York schools.

All the changes Lockport City School District is making, including doors and sign-in systems, will cost nearly $4 million dollars. Funds are coming from the Smart School Bond Act of 2014. It is a referendum allowing the state to give schools money for safety following the Sandy Hook shooting. More than 200 schools across New York are on the waiting list for approval for funds from the act.