5 Lessons on upgrading

Feb 1, 2004 12:00 PM

TESS Goes to School

Arming Washoe County School Police With Advanced Communication Capabilities

By CORRINA STELLITANO

A far cry from the one-room schoolhouse, the Washoe County School District in Nevada extends across an area larger than the state of Delaware. It stretches from the California border to the Oregon border, encompassing Reno, Lake Tahoe, and the Sierra mountain range. The district is responsible for 65,000 students, 6,500 employees, and is composed of 96 facilities, including 88 elementary, middle and high schools, and various administrative buildings.

The Washoe County School District is protected by its own police force, with 31 sworn officers and two dispatchers. Although the force only operates from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., the threats it faces are similar to the crimes fought by many municipal police forces, School Police Lieutenant Dale Richardson says.

To protect its students, the police force relies on modern technological tools. Some schools are monitored by digital or analog CCTV. For the last five years, the officers have used Nextel Direct Connect; last summer, they also began communicating by 800mhz trunk radio. Soon their vehicles will be equipped with AT&T wireless data-modem cards through San Diego-based Voyager Systems, allowing them to research warrants through state and national databases.

Until September 2003, however, this vast school district communicated using a 20-year-old telephone system. For the proactive Washoe County School Police force, the aging system was a considerable limitation.

“We had a 20-year-old system. We didn't have any idea a 911 call had been placed from one of our schools until the local police department called us,” Richardson explains. “Now, we're actually joining the 21st century.”

To renovate its antiquated system, the Washoe County school district enlisted the help of New York City-based XTEND Communications Corp.

Brahim Atlagh, a project engineer and implementation analyst for XTEND, supervised the Washoe County installation. “[The district] needed to be able to send enhanced information about 911 calls from any location within Washoe County, and they needed to be notified every time so they could be the first responder on every 911 call made from one of their schools,” he says.

Enlisting TESS

To satisfy the needs of school systems like Washoe County's, XTEND has combined two of its PC-based tools to create a system designed specifically for educational facilities. TESS, or Telecommunications Enhancing School Safety, couples the emergency notification system EnterpriseAlert with the call center solution pc/psap.

“Our TESS system is a marriage of two areas of our expertise,” explains Gerard Shallo, XTEND's product line manager. “On one end, you have the requirement for Washoe County's school safety officials on-site to be immediately notified of an impending situation. We also must provide a vehicle with which Washoe County School District can update the public Automatic Location Information (ALI) database.

“At the other end of the call, you have emergency call takers and dispatchers who need to be equipped with the tools to receive the call and take care of the victim caller.”

Enterprise Alert is a PC-based solution that allows the school district's private branch exchange (PBX) to communicate with the Public E911 network. When a 911 call is made from a school phone, Enterprise Alert provides information such as the caller's phone number or Automatic Number Identification (ANI) and detailed location information or Automatic Location Identification (ALI) to the emergency call taker. This information is accurate down to the exact classroom number.

A primary capability of the Enterprise Alert system — providing enhanced information to the national 911 system — was crucial for Washoe County. When a 911 call is placed, a dispatcher is typically able to view both the location and phone number of the caller. However, this information is generally derived from the local telephone company's billing records.

When a 911 call is made by someone in a large building or campus environment from behind a PBX, the dispatcher will typically see only the main billing phone number and address for the facility. Depending on the size of the facility, the billing address could be miles from the exact location of the caller. As a result, the call could be routed to the wrong emergency call center and this incorrect information could also be transmitted to police, fire and EMS responders. If the caller is unable to communicate — such as when the victim faints or is choking — the dispatcher can't determine the caller's actual location and the entire premises must be sealed.

The Washoe County School District operates six PBXs. Without the Enterprise Alert system, responders would only receive the main street address of the school from which the 911 call originated, potentially delaying life-saving responders.

Eavesdropping Allowed

XTEND's pc/psap enables Washoe County School Police dispatchers to use their PCs (in this case, Dell PCs operating on Microsoft Windows 2000) as ANI/ALI controllers, enabling them to view the exact location and callback number of each 911 call. In addition, the dispatcher can listen in as the caller speaks with the emergency call taker at the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP).

The monitoring capability offered by pc/psap is an essential portion of TESS, Richardson says. “When a 911 call comes in, we can listen but not interact. But, before that local agency can call us, we can already have units rolling.”

Because officers patrol every school in the district, knowing about the 911 calls as they happen can greatly affect response times, Richardson says. In many cases, the time of response can shrink from five minutes to only one minute.

Listening in also helps school personnel differentiate among dangerous incidents, for example, a student with chest pains vs. a student with a gun. Sometimes the necessary reaction can be very different: in one case, school officials would rush toward the student, while in the other case they might isolate him.

Although the district has not had a serious crisis since incorporating TESS, the system has helped in non-life-threatening emergencies. In one case, a warehouse worker fell and broke his arm. “We were able to intercept the 911 call, and before Reno could call us and dispatch fire and medical, we already had officers on the scene,” Richardson recalls.

In addition to connecting the entire Washoe County school district with public emergency resources, the TESS system allows the district to use certain features during internal emergencies. Anyone on school grounds can directly contact the Washoe school police by dialing *1.

Five school and administrative facilities are currently using the TESS system; more buildings are expected to join the network this year. To organize the wealth of information about where each phone is located and who occupies which classroom, Washoe County's TESS system uses a Microsoft SQL database.

When information changes, school officials update their Microsoft SQL database allowing XTEND to update its database. School officials have also been trained to use the XTEND application to send the new information to the PS/ALI database operated by the local telephone company. The school district is required to use a constantly changing 6-digit password to access the highly secure public database, which controls the information the 911 dispatcher receives.

Making TESS Safe and Friendly

TESS product planners considered both public safety and ease of use. The Dell PCs Washoe County uses are backed up with a RAID 5 Dell server. Mirrored drives provide replication in case of server failure.

Extensive testing was necessary as well; administrating an entire school system's access to 911 emergency services is a weighty responsibility.

“We do a lot of monitoring of the 911 trunks and phone lines, and we also provide e-mail notifications of any system failures,” Atlagh says. “And in the worst case scenario, if XTEND is completely down, the customer would have the same communication capabilities they had before XTEND came on board.”

The TESS-enabled PCs do offer additional capabilities for users, including voice recording and quick playback, quick dial and transfer, call history and premises history (an audit of past 911 calls from this location), and GIS integration.

Planned extensions to the TESS product already in development include the ability to record and trace bomb threat calls and provide teachers with a “teacher needs help” button that they can carry with them like a garage door opener.

Basing the main system components on products available on the general market was important to XTEND, Atlagh explains. “We use all commercially available hardware, nothing proprietary.”

With the TESS system, Washoe County School Police have the security of knowing that when emergencies do occur, they have the tools to be first on the scene.

FOR THE RECORD

About the companies

For information, circle the Reader Service number (listed below) or visit securitysolutions.com

AT&T	5
Nextel	6
Voyager Systems	7
XTEND Communications Corp.	8

Secure with Access Control

A Recent Upgrade at the Largest School District in Indiana Is a Success

By RANDY SOUTHERLAND

It was the perfect opportunity.

The Indianapolis Public School System was about to embark on a seven-year, $250 million capital improvement project, which included the construction of four new schools and extensive renovations within the district's 90 buildings.

For Rick Joest, director of technology and security for the district, it also represented the pathway to a more advanced and user-friendly access control and security system.

“We have a central monitoring facility and access control is a big part of security and building management,” Joest says. “That was the missing piece we were looking for to tie everything together.”

The problem was simple and commonplace. The school system was running an aging access control, video and burglar alarm system that required extensive amounts of time for security officials to handle even the most routine matters.

“The school police dispatch is overrun with tedious work that should be automated,” Joest says.

Throughout the 40,500-student system — the largest in Indiana — all schools open at the same time. Almost instantly, school police receive phone calls from each of the 90 buildings. This deluge results from an established procedure in which personnel are required to call into the central station when they disarm an alarm system.

“It's the same thing in the evening,” Joest says. “They have to tell the school police and get ready to arm it.”

“We knew that we wanted to get it to the point where they could disarm the buildings and (be notified) electronically at dispatch that a particular person just disarmed this building. That way, the phone doesn't have to ring,” Joest says.

Indianapolis was unable to accomplish that feat until they obtained an access control system that had the ability to identify who was coming into the building to disarm the alarm and report that information back to the system.

To obtain that kind of system, the district partnered with Minneapolis-based Honeywell's Building Solutions division. In what will be a four-year project, the company is well into the implementation of a system that should improve security and access control.

These solutions include Honeywell's Enterprise Buildings Integrator (EBI), which promises the capacity to monitor, control and integrate operations over key security areas from a single source. In addition, the Asset Locator, which provides real-time tracking and location of tagged assets and personnel. The NexWatch access control system was selected to provide management of all entry and exit points and the Digital Video Manager will allow for monitoring and surveillance across the district's entire network.

“The advantage they had with EBI is that they could integrate not just the security pieces, but also other applications they needed and essentially create a single control system,” says Honeywell's Greg Taylor. “It will allow them to view security information, HVAC, fire and other safety devices at all of the schools.”

There are 100 megabyte connections between all buildings using Vista 128 panels. “Instead of using dial-up, we were able to hook the RS232 port of the Vista panel to a computer and just use our infrastructure to report any alarms,” Joest says.

The EBI system enables school personnel to present their cards and enter a PIN code that grants them the ability to arm or disarm the panel. Since the system did not require extensive bandwidth, the exisiting infrastructure proved more than adequate for the task. Each school's computer system is able to route information to specific IP addresses at the district's central monitoring facility. This data is displayed to school police who can then dispatch security personnel as the need arises.

“Any time a motion detector goes off, notification occurs immediately instead of waiting for a dial-up to kick in,” Joest explains.

Video from cameras at each school can be viewed online. When an alarm event is recorded, personnel in the central station use Digital Video Manager to view the camera connected with the alarm location. Footage is recorded digitally and then stored locally at the particular school.

While most cameras are compatible with the Video Manager, some don't offer integrated digital video monitoring through the new system. When these cameras are eventually replaced, the system will then offer camera streaming from each location.

In addition to installing new access control, district officials decided to install automated entrances for Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance. An audio/video intercom system from Bellevue, Wash.-based Aiphone Corp. is connected to the front office. This system provides added security by allowing visitors to call school personnel who can view and then grant them entry remotely, since many schools choose to keep their front doors locked.

Along with securing property, the district was also concerned about providing tracking and monitoring of the large number of vehicles, especially the 330 buses that transport students each day and a small fleet of cars used by district personnel.

Each vehicle is being outfitted with the Honeywell Asset Locator in order to provide real-time tracking as vehicles go about their routes. Long-range monitors installed at each school will provide transportation officials with arrival and departure times and a better sense of how traffic is flowing.

FOR THE RECORD

About the companies

For information, circle the Reader Service number (listed below) or visit securitysolutions.com

Aiphone	9
Honeywell	10

Eight Years Later

As Its Needs and Facilities Have Expanded, the Hauppauge School District's Security System Has Grown To Match

By DON GARBERA

Almost every security system eventually becomes overloaded as the user deploying it expands — either in size and number of facilities or the amount of people the system monitors. Such was the case for the Hauppauge School District in Hauppauge, Long Island, which has widened the coverage of its security system to monitor six buildings and more than 3,500 students.

Access Control & Security Systems reported on the Hauppauge School System back in 1996. There is quite a difference in how security is handled today vs. eight years ago. In 1996, for example, the operation included only one camera. Today, 250 surveillance cameras from Panasonic patrol the six buildings under the jurisdiction of the Hauppauge School District.

Ed Spear, who was a security supervisor for the school district in 1996, is now the district's director of security. “Because of Columbine and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, we have become much more proactive,” Spear says. “Prior to those incidents, we were only responsible for physical security and student supervision. Today, we also take an active role in planning for emergency incidents and creating scenarios on how to respond to those situations.”

Among the many systems that have been put in place is a district-wide authorization system — which includes prox card technology — and increased communications capabilities. Each classroom incorporates a phone, caller ID and pager system linked directly to a security control room that didn't even exist in 1996. All teachers have computers in their classrooms to access the district-wide network for emergency notification, as well as for e-mail, Internet and intranet connection.

The security operation incorporates Station Message Detail Recording (SMDR), which supplies information on who made calls to a particular number, and who received calls at that particular number within the school system.

Spear and his staff have also set up a satellite phone system instead of using cellular phones for school groups traveling into New York City. “We were using cell phones prior to the New York City black-out this past summer,” Spear says. “We learned that when the power-grid, which caused the black-out, went down, cellular communications were also practically non-existent. Now, if a teacher has to take a class into or through the city, they also take along a satellite phone which ensures that we'll be able to communicate with them if a crisis should arise. We are using them for international travel as well. For example, this month (February) an enrichment class is going out of the country, and will be accompanied by a satellite phone.”

Alarm communicators from Silent Knight have been installed to report a fire condition to the Hauppauge Fire Department's Dispatch Center. Napco 2600 burglar alarm panels have also been installed to patrol certain ingress/egress locations.

Identification cards are worn by faculty members at all times, and are part of the proximity card used to access 18 doors in the system, and incorporate a picture of the bearer. Sony Mavica cameras are used to create the ID pictures and also for photos of incidents and motor vehicle accidents that occur on school property. New England Security and Communications software is used to produce the cards, which are printed on Fargo printers.

CCTV camera coverage includes administrative offices, high-traffic locations such as hallway intersections, staff and visitor entrances, pay phones and cafeterias, as well as areas which have, in the past, experienced a high rate of incidents. The system also uses Kalatel high-speed domes.

The main security command center is located at Hauppauge High School. At the present time, not all buildings are wired into the center. Some incorporate standalone systems. However, in the next two years, Spear expects to have all buildings online with the command center.

The command center houses three DVX digital video recorders, five Panasonic monitors, five Sanyo multiplexers, and Dell computers used to access video recordings. The standalone control rooms use Veltek digital video recorders. Video distribution is handled by a system created in-house five years ago (prior to Internet distribution capabilities becoming available) with products from Channel Master.

There is no dispatcher on duty within the command center. All alarms are sent to United Central Station, a Long Island, N.Y. company that supplies alarm monitoring services. They notify the school's answering service, which, in-turn, pages the on-call staff using Motorola pagers. The security officer on duty must confirm all messages by phone or radio. Spear says the entire procedure takes approximately two minutes.

The 25 security officers are all proprietary and carry either Kenwood or Motorola radios. The guard tour system and key management systems are provided by Morse Watchman. They receive training over and above what is mandated by the State of New York, including classes on CPR, automatic external defibrillator (AED), blood borne pathogens, right-to-know (RTK) issues which refer to chemicals in the workplace, fire safety, communications, report writing and conflict resolution. They are also trained in the use of a narcotics identification kit (NIK), used for testing unknown substances.

“We also provide state-mandated in-service training for school support staff, such as secretaries and clerks, which includes how to make an emergency call, and keeping outside emergency services updated on an on-going situation, as well as our own special emergency situational preparedness training,” Spear adds.

In addition to “beefing-up” their preparedness capabilities, the security operation set up an anonymous tips hotline for kids, parents and the community for reporting unusual behavior, threats and illegal activity which could impact the school community. Bullying among students is taken seriously as well. If a child is bullied, he or she can make an anonymous call to the hotline.

Knox 1300 Series boxes have been installed throughout the school campuses which incorporate items such as building keys for emergency access, student and staff emergency information, and reference CDs incorporating school specifics for use by police and fire departments. Using a Powerpoint presentation program, the CDs incorporate photos capturing multiple views of each classroom, as well as information on each room's physical characteristics. The boxes are also being used as a key control source with dual-lock access on each Knox cabinet. The Hauppauge Fire Department uses the top lock, with the bottom lock belonging to the school district and the Suffolk County Police Department. In addition, the fire department has its own central station receiver that enables notification sent from a Knox box to go directly to the fire department.

All boxes are alarm supervised; which means that if someone tries to gain either unauthorized or authorized entry into a box, the fire department is immediately notified. They, in-turn, notify school officials. The Knox boxes also include a phone, access to the school's public address system and a dataport to allow for accessing the computer network — enabling the boxes to serve as communications centers during an emergency situation. Emergency personnel arriving at a district school can communicate with any room in the building and make necessary announcements.

Recently, local police responded to a bomb scare at a school within the district. Spear was able to determine who the perpetrator was by reviewing the digital video from a camera which was focused on a pay phone used by a student to make the bomb threat. The matter was turned over to police.

“The cameras are a tremendous aid to our operation,” explains Spear. “They have become a benign fixture within the school's hallways. For example, when a fight breaks out between a couple of students, we can go to the digital video and determine exactly which student started it. The incredible thing is that although most of the cameras are not hidden, the students have become accustomed to their presence, and oblivious to the fact that they are being recorded. On reviewing digital recordings, we've actually seen students commit a crime, leave the scene, and then return to see if a camera was actually watching them.”

FOR THE RECORD

About the companies

For information, circle the Reader Service number (listed below) or visit securitysolutions.com

GE Interlogix/Kalatel	11
Knox	12
Morse Watchman	13
Motorola	14
Napco	15
New England Security and Comm.	16
Sanyo	17
Silent Knight	18
Sony	19
Veltek	20

Doing Triple Duty

ID Cards Get the Job Done For Chicago Public Schools Employees

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) comprise more than 600 schools and serves nearly 500,000 students. The system employs approximately 62,000 people and operates within a budget approaching $3.6 billion. Prior to the 2003-2004 school year, each school in the district issued its own employee identification cards with separate cards for tracking time and attendance.

This year, CPS developed a program to consolidate three functions, including a new electronic paycheck option, onto one card used district-wide. A pilot program last summer proved the success of using debit cards in lieu of paper paychecks.

“Rather than have three cards, we have one card serving three functions. It will be an ID card, an automated time and attendance system and a debit card,” says Mike Edwards, director of payroll for Chicago Public Schools. “Now we have a uniform card across the entire system.”

The cards, printed on three Zebra 720i CM printers, include a magnetic stripe that allows employees to access individual ATM accounts, a barcode that they swipe through a reader to record time and attendance, plus a Maestro, Cirrus and CPS logo. The first generation of cards do not include employee photos, but photos may be incorporated later, Edwards says.

The cards are more convenient for employees, and the district expects to save a significant amount of money by not issuing paper checks. Approximately 80 percent of CPS employees have direct deposit; however, many still receive paper checks.

The debit cards will also cut down on classroom disruptions. “Currently if an employee doesn't get paid, they leave the school and come to our facility to get a check. Once the cards are in place, if we need to pay someone, we simply fund the card and tell them to go to the closest ATM and get their money. That doesn't leave a classroom uncovered,” Edwards says.

Identatronics, Chicago, was hired to create the new ID/eCash cards. More than 50,000 cards have been printed, each of them dual-sided with encoded magnetic stripes and barcodes. The CPS cards are laminated on the front and on three-quarters of the back, up to the signature stripe.

“We needed a high-volume, high-capacity laminating printer that we could trust to get us through those 50,000 eCash cards. And we knew we would have to do a certain amount of replacement badges every month,” says Identatronics' Mike Grzegorek.

The most difficult aspect of the project was making sure the cards functioned properly with the CPS Kronos time-and-attendance software and the Comdata/Ceridian ATM bank accounts.

FOR THE RECORD

About the companies

For information, circle the Reader Service number (listed below) or visit securitysolutions.com

Identatronics	21
Zebra	22

System-Wide Installation Makes a Splash

Sonitrol's Audio Monitoring and Video Surveillance System Protects the Clovis (Calif.) Unified School District

Clandestine midnight splash parties used to be a problem for the Clovis (Calif.) Unified School District.

“The summers are very hot here, and the pools are very tempting,” says Bill McGuire, associate school district superintendent. He oversees a district of 35,000 students, with more than 40 different sites. Located in central California, northeast of Fresno, the district is known for its award-winning sports programs, community involvement and grand swimming pools — equipped with challenging 10-meter diving boards.

“[Once] they figured out how to duck the beams of the old motion detector system, the kids were scaling the fences, using the pool, turning over chairs and leaving trash behind,” says Gerry Mulligan, trades supervisor for the district. “The pools had to be closed, and the district was spending more than $2,000 every day to clean up the messes.”

“The local youth knew that the other system was not working, and that they could get away with it,” McGuire says.

A committee was formed, requests for proposals (RFPs) were sent out, and the district conducted extensive reviews of security providers in the area. “Some companies were going to scare them away with alarms. Others would have patrols,” says McGuire. “In the end, we decided that we were more interested in apprehension than just knowing about what was happening.” Sonitrol of Fresno won the bid, with a package of audio monitoring and video surveillance.

Sonitrol decided to do a system-wide installation, but agreed to do an immediate “quick band-aid solution” at the pool area. The first day it was in operation, the pool system caught five students trespassing. To date, there have been 30 apprehensions, says Mulligan, also the project coordinator.

The system-wide project includes more than 80 burglary panels, 250 keypads, 700 impact-stored audio detectors, 10 expansion modules, approximately 650 door contacts and 15 perimeter photo-electric beam systems.

The system will also encompass several new buildings that are now under construction, and other sites that will be built over the next several years.

The monitoring devices are placed in offices, administration buildings, libraries and snack bars. There are no devices monitoring the classrooms.

Sonitrol's Verified Audio Detection System uses small audio sensors that are strategically placed throughout the targeted area. When the sensors pick up any abnormal sounds, a signal is sent via T-1 lines to the central monitoring station, where the operators listen to live audio transmissions around the clock. While noting the location data on the computer screen, the operator can then verify the nature of the event and determine how to respond. The system is recording all the time. If there is an alert, it stores 6 seconds of the event's sounds, which can then be replayed by the operators for analysis. With the ability to verify and replay an alerted event, the operators can call the proper authorities, or reset the system without having to contact the police.

False alarms have become a hot topic nationwide. Some studies have shown that 98 percent of all alarm activations are false. “The police do not want to answer alarms until they are verified,” Brennan says. “And the motion detector/beam systems are false alarm machines.”

The Sonitrol system is customized to meet each location's unique requirements. The audio detectors can focus on a certain area. The monitors can be adjusted to be as sensitive as a doctor's stethoscope, if that is what's needed. “Once it is activated, you could hear a person whispering,” Brennan explains. The system can include cameras, infrared motion detectors, electronic beams, access control and fire detection systems.

“It works because we hear the crime,” Brennan says. “The message is getting out. We have signs all over the school. We were catching [the kids] in flocks in the beginning. There were a bunch in June, then again in July, then a few less in August. By Labor Day, there was nobody. It is a major success story. The school district never expected that we would be able to achieve results immediately.”

FOR THE RECORD

About the company

For information, circle the Reader Service number (listed below) or visit securitysolutions.com

Sonitrol

23

Want to use this article? Click here for options!
© 2008 Penton Media Inc.

This month in Access Control

• Targeting The Customer
• Electronic Pedigrees
• One Hero Among Many
• Who? What? When? Where? Why?
• More from September's issue