Page 78 - Security Today, June 2018

VIDEO SURVEILLANCE
CREATING A CAMPUS-WIDE DIGITAL SURVEILLANCE SOLUTION
Texas Tech University has implemented video surveillance solutions throughout their expansive and open campus
By George Watson
At more than 1,800 acres, Texas Tech University is spread out over a wide swath of the central part of the City of Lubbock. There are also numerous entry points on to university grounds on all sides, though there are only a few roads that reach completely from one side of the campus to the other.
Still, maintaining a secure campus over such a wide area with numerous entry points is an ongoing challenge for those charged with the safety and security of the faculty, staff and students at Texas Tech, not to mention the multitude of university visitors and outside work- ers, delivery drivers and construction employees.
“It is challenging,” said Ronald Phillips, who serves as University Counsel and also is responsible for overseeing campus security and emergency management activities at Texas Tech. “We have a very large campus and it’s a very open campus, and we have a lot of access points to cover.”
In an ongoing effort to improve campus safety and security, Texas Tech has instituted a program to install security cameras at random locations across campus, hopefully to not only deter crime from hap- pening on campus but also to assist the Texas Tech Police Department
with investigating and solving crimes that do happen on campus.
“I think there’s a certain practical benefit to the cameras, and a psy- chological one,” said Lawrence Schovanec, president of Texas Tech University. “People who might have ill intentions hopefully will be deterred by knowing they are under surveillance, and those already on campus might feel more secure knowing that security is there. They are
a greater resource to react to any incident that does occur.”
THE NEED FOR SURVEILLANCE
While there were incidents on campus during the fall that would seem, from the outside, to be the catalyst for the addition of security cameras on campus, the initiative for them actually goes back about 18 months.
Texas Tech Police Chief Kyle Bonath said a carjacking on campus showed security officials there was not only a need for new security cameras but a need to update the ones already in existence. Not only were there a plethora of different brands of security cameras through- out campus, there also are different organizations in charge of their maintenance and upkeep.
That led to the organization of the Campus Automated Safety and Security (CASS) committee. Composed of members from the Stu-
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