Nov 26, 2014

Universities have a particular need for surveillance solutions. After all, university administrators have a responsibility to ensure that all of their students – not to mention faculty and staff – go about their days in a safe and highly secure environment. A large part of this security comes from the university being able to keep an eye on its grounds, which is where video surveillance solutions come into play. But exactly how do such efforts break down at different colleges and universities? We thought we would take a look:

• Calvin College (Michigan): Located in a rural part of Michigan, Calvin College is a small school, but the college’s safety department has still made a significant investment in outfitting the school with proactive surveillance solutions. Cameras are located in strategic and inconspicuous locations in order to record the type of information that could prove instrumental in preventing crimes. The video feed is then transmitted to a central location where it’s reviewed by people who’ve been specially trained to review such footage.
• Waldorf College (Iowa): At Waldorf in Iowa, the people in charge of security realized that real-time monitoring is often the best way to prevent things like property theft and even lost personal items. An outline of the school’s video surveillance policy states that the school’s monitoring solution offers a robust way to hold property thieves accountable for their crimes. “If property is reported stolen or damaged, the video may show the perpetrator,” the outline states. Also, the mere fact of having a surveillance system in the first place is a good deterrent to crime. That’s because if a potential thief realizes he or she may be being monitored, they’ll perhaps think twice before snagging that backpack or laptop.
• Merced College (California): With a student population exceeding 11,000, Merced is hardly a small university. When you’re dealing with 11,000 people on a daily basis, security becomes absolutely imperative, and you need breadth as well as depth. For Merced, a wireless surveillance system helped meet this need. After deploying a wireless system, the school witnessed an immediate and marked decline in certain incidents.”The evidence collection capabilities of the system are incredible,” said Deputy Sheriff Jim Wilde of the Merced County Sheriff’s Office. “…We have been able to successfully investigate and resolve numerous cases of crime, vandalism, and assault on campus.”Most of Merced’s success with surveillance happened after the fact – that is, the school would use pre-recorded footage to later identify a culprit. This helped in pinning down a student who set his books on fire and some parking lot hit-and-run accidents, for example. But the real-time system has its distinct benefits, as the school found out one day when it caught a crime in progress. As Wilde explained it, officers were looking at the system’s footage when they noticed someone stealing trim from cars. Officers were dispatched to the scene and the criminal was caught on the spot. According to Wilde, this kind of success has helped pave the way for more effective police investigations.

  “With more control over the system, greater image clarity, and advanced zooming capabilities, we have reduced the time it takes to conduct an investigation from days to just minutes – and our success level has skyrocketed,” he said.

When it comes to surveillance, it’s important to implement a solution that you can depend on. Real time surveillance from Firetide offers an unbeatable line of monitoring defense. Whether you’re a college looking to keep students safe or a business needing to monitor its space, there’s a Firetide solution for you.