Page 104 - Security Today, October 2019

“In addition to establishing proper response proce- dures, a comprehensive approach to campus security must include prevention-focused security measures.”
By Bruce Canal
Perimeter Protection
Security solution advances drive reevaluation of campus security
best practices
According to the National Center for Education Statis- tics (NCES), 95 percent of public schools engaged in lockdown drills designed to protect students in the event of an intruder on campus during the 2015-16 school year—a number that has likely grown in the intervening years. It is an astonishingly high percentage, and it effec- tively drives home the ubiquity of campus security concerns in the United States. There are laws mandating the performance of these drills in 32 of 50 states, from K-8 schools to high schools and colleges. Ensuring that students can play, learn, and grow in a secure environ- ment is perhaps the highest priority in the education field.
Drills play an important role in keeping students safe, but they center around understanding what to do when an incident is already in progress. In addition to establishing proper response procedures, a comprehensive approach must include prevention-focused security measures. Today, there are more tools available than ever to establish strong perimeter security and help campus security teams identify intruders and potential threats before they arise.
Smarter Tools are Changing the Campus Security Game
Public perception of school security tends to lag a little behind the times. For many, the idea calls to mind sash-wearing hall monitors, or perhaps a single school resource officer stationed near a high-traf- fic hallway. Even the more technology-focused solutions fail to accu- rately represent the tools available today: metal detectors and walls of security monitors might still be a part of the solution in some cases, but they fall short of representing the depth and breadth of today’s access control and monitoring resources.
The truth is that, as concern for campus safety has blossomed, so too has the development of more innovative, affordable, and effective tools for monitoring and controlling the perimeter of campus build- ings. The NCES notes that 81 percent of schools include cameras as part of their security solution. But what does this mean, exactly? While it’s nice to know that a school uses cameras as a security mea- sure, how those cameras are being monitored matters.
The difference between traditional, analog security cameras and today’s IP cameras is as vast as the difference between the tape deck
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