Schools Should Have Surveillance Cameras

A poll of North Americans in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December 2012 has revealed that the majority of people would prefer their children attend a school with video surveillance systems rather than one without.

Sixty percent of US residents and 52 percent of Canadians polled by Ipsos Public Affairs agreed they would feel that their children were safer with surveillance cameras in place. However, less than a sixth of people (16 percent in the US and 11 percent in Canada) thought that security measures undertaken by schools were well communicated.

This is perhaps why many people believed that armed guards in schools would be an effective way of keeping schools safe — 30 percent in the US and 11 percent in Canada. But the simple methods are often among the best — around 40 percent of adults in North America thought that having doors locked at all times was the most effective way of keeping pupils safe.

Speculation would suggest that the events at Sandy Hook have shaken American confidence in security in schools. Fifty-four percent of US adults polled said they are more concerned about children’s safety at school than they were a year ago. This was in contrast to 40 percent of Canadians being more worried.

The poll was commissioned by Avigilon, and spoke to over 1,000 people each in Canada and the US in late March.

Aviglon’s Brian Schmode said HD video surveillance and access control in schools are “key security measures” and that they could be used to keep out intruders, reduce bullying, and even ensure higher enrollment. One university in Sydney was able to reduce crime by 25 percent year-over-year following the installation of a new security system, he said.

In another article on Avigilon’s own website, Ned Miller, director of campus safety and emergency management at Des Moines Area Community College, explains that he believes HD video surveillance can improve safety and security in an educational establishment. The college has over 50 buildings, covering 1.5 million square feet. He said:

I think there is a good deterrent factor when people know you have good video surveillance. We don’t make any secret of the fact that we have video surveillance [and] we want people to know that public areas are under surveillance.

Miller explained that he does face questions from concerned parents about their security operations, but that it’s not something he faces every day.

In the UK, it’s been over 17 years since Thomas Hamilton killed 16 primary school children, their teacher, and himself in the last school shooting the country has seen. That incident led to the effective banning of handgun ownership in the UK. One is left to wonder if investing in high-definition video surveillance systems is little more than a warm blanket for communities where gun ownership is almost as common as car ownership. An interactive map published late last year shows shooting incidents in schools around the world since 1996. The US is by far in a way the most highlighted country on the map.

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