Page 16 - spaces4learning, Fall 2021

Best Practices for Keeping Students Safe
This FREE comprehensive Campus
Security eBook walks you through what you need to know, including:
• Evaluating the total cost of ownership before purchase • Best practices in assessing your risk
• An interactive map of common applications
• Helpful checklists to track progress
• Modern technologies and integrations
• Establishing policies and procedures
Download at aiphone.com/S4L_CampusSecurity
A Guide to Campus Security
INTERACTIVE MAP
Click the color dots to learn more about how a single person can regulate access and monitor school grounds across an entire networked campus or district.
Click on Colored Feature Locations for More Detail
TECHNOLOGY
The days of asking visitors to use pen-and-paper sign-in books are gone. Best practices now favor electronic visitor management systems (VMS). They’re accurate, easy to operate, and enhance security.
Visitors are asked to produce a government-issued photo
ID which is swiped through a visitor management system. Within seconds, the person’s information is checked against federal and state criminal databases and the more than 700,000 names on the national sex offender registry.
ASSESSING RISK
Many tools used to protect building interiors are different than those used to secure outdoor spaces. Emergency stations, low-light cameras, and other equipment — even landscaping — take on greater importance.
Parking lots, garages, and other exterior areas require adequate lighting, fencing, emergency stations, and security cameras. The inspector wants to see that facilities are regularly patrolled or monitored by either campus security or other first responders.
SAFETY TIP
Surrounding Neighborhoods
You may hear your assessor mention CPTED or Crime Protection Through Environmental Design. It includes practices, such as trimming back landscaping to installing fencing. There’s more on this topic later.
Other environments, such as on- and off-campus student housing, businesses, open space, and traffic patterns can impact your security and should be included in an overall strategy plan.
8 | A Guide to Campus Security TOC
Electronic Lists and Temporary Badges
A campus can also add its own custom watch lists. When properly implemented, watch lists provide protection from abuse orders, custodial issues, and the names
of disgruntled former employees and students.
After the system clears a visitor, a temporary badge is printed with the person’s name, picture, date/time, and area of campus approved to visit. Some badges automatically fade within a specific time frame to indicate the visitor’s authorized time on campus has expired and prevent the badge from being reused.
Visitor management stations are typically found at main building entries, administration offices, healthcare facilities, dormitory lobbies, and other buildings. Visitor information from multiple campus stations is stored in a central database, and is easy to share with first responders during an investigation.
Parking Lots and Garages
Outdoor Facilities
It’s easy to overlook athletic fields, playgrounds, walking trails, portable classrooms, and other campus outbuildings. These are not only frequent targets for illegal activity, but tend to be areas where health-related assistance may be necessary.
Annexes and Urban Campuses
Remote annexes and larger urban higher-education campuses, which spread throughout a city, present more of a security and communication challenge. Look for network-based security systems to bring information into a centralized security operations center where officers can keep track of dispersed campuses.