Cameras to deter trouble at Evanston Township High School

Jul 1, 1999 12:00 PM, George Partington

The interior of Evanston Township High School measures 1.1 million squarefeet. Corridors stretch more than 15,000 lineal feet. There are fourcafeterias, 47 stairwells and 55 exterior doors. In short, the schoolpresents a security challenge.

The 29,000-student school sits just north of Chicago and shares the city'sLake Michigan setting. Beginning this fall, school officials will be ableto watch over the sprawling institution - including some exterior locations- with a sophisticated surveillance system.

Access Control & Security Systems Integration spoke with George Dellorto,Evanston High School director of operations and purchasing, about thesecurity upgrade.

Why did you decide to install CCTV equipment?It was a request from our department of safety to have better monitoring ofthe hallways and stairwells and areas where students get into trouble. Weare trying to cut down on some of the graffiti, vandalism and theft in thebuilding and also maintain better decorum during school hours.

How many cameras do you anticipate using?In order to cover all those areas, we are going to use about 550 Burlecameras. We are putting in fixed, ceiling-mounted color cameras(well-mounted in the stairways). We want to be able to totally monitoractivities in the corridors. Therefore, the spacing is approximately 50feet between cameras.

Who will monitor these cameras?They will not be live cameras. We are recording events, and we will go backand look at the tapes should there be a reported incident. We have thecapabilities of live monitoring for special events. We could fix a cameraon a particular spot. We have eight monitors that all these cameras arefeeding into through multiplexers. If you looked at a monitor not inreal-time mode you would see pictures from 16 cameras. We are recordingover a 24-hour period and we will change tapes each day and archive themfor a month or two. Video is routed through a QSI Systems Inc. PCapplication that uses a video capture card to function as a multiplexer.Images are captured on tape using SVHS-quality VCRs that are RS-232controllable.

Are you aware of any other high schools that have similar systems?The Proviso East and West High Schools in Maywood, Ill., which is a westernsuburb of Chicago, put them in about two years ago. There are a couple ofinner city schools in Chicago that have cameras, but it is certainlysomething that everybody is looking into now, with the various incidentshappening.

We have had some assaults and things that have happened over the last threeor four years that might have been prevented if we had had some kind ofmonitoring system.

Why do you think that would prevent the incidents?I think if you are being watched as you drag someone down a hall and into aroom you are less apt to do that and know that you are going to get caught.

Have you talked to officials from schools that do have this type of camerasystem?Yes. They tell us that the fighting has dropped considerably - almost tozero - so has vandalism. They said it is a much quieter place now. Oursafety staff currently is about 23 people, because of the size of theinstitution, and even with that many it is impossible to be everywhere.

Do you anticipate decreasing the staff?I think administration over the long haul would anticipate either the staffnot growing or decreasing. I think the director of the safety departmentanticipates needing people to follow up - you still have to respond to anincident and that sort of thing.

Any other security equipment used?We have magnetic door locks on all of our exterior doors, so we lock-downthe school after 9 a.m., with the exception of two doors where we havesecurity people stationed. We require visitors to sign in; that way thestudents can't sneak out. After hours it is locked-down more so, unlessthere is a special event, in which case necessary doors are left open butmonitored by a security person.

The safety department uses Adams Electronics hand-held metal detectors. Wehad a shooting incident three or four years ago. At that time we consideredinstalling walk-through metal detectors, but the community and the schoolboard didn't like the image that portrayed, so they agreed for the safetydepartment to buy a couple hand-held metal detectors.

We master-key all of our lockers, so we can, if we feel the need, do randomlocker searches.

How do you determine when to use the hand-held metal detectors?That decision is made by the safety department. If they get a report thatsomeone is bringing a gun to school, then they would check. Our director ofsafety is a retired Evanston police chief.

Do you practice community policing with resource officers?Yes. We have one resource officer that is an Evanston police officer whoworks as a liaison with our police force and with our safety staff anddeans.

Most of the safety staff are people from the community who know thestudents and know their families. Because of that, the students arecomfortable speaking to them if there is a problem or when they hearsomething.

What are the responsibilities of the safety staff?They are student-management personnel. They wear slacks and blazers. Theymaintain quiet in the hallways, help direct visitors to various locations,have the students clear the hallways when the bell rings for class. Ourteachers have little, if any, hall duty. We do have some hall monitors -teachers that come out between periods and stand outside their classroom -but that is just to assist the safety department.

Have you received any negative feedback from your plan to put the cameras in?When we brought this up to the board for approval, we had three or fourpublic sessions for people to speak out either against or for the cameras.We had a mixed bag. The teachers' opinions were mixed. The teachers' unionwas in favor of it. Some of the teachers were concerned we were going tosee if they weren't standing in their doorway between classes. Somestudents said it was racist. There were concerns about Big Brother. Wewrote a policy that was approved at a board meeting. It was specific aboutthe fact that we are not doing real-time monitoring. Everything is beingtaped and will be reviewed if there is an incident. Once the cameras areoperating, we will ensure that the students, community, faculty and staffare a part of the development of how the cameras are used. We are trying toset aside any fears. We told the student council they are welcome to tourthe monitoring area.

Will it be easy for any student to see the monitors?The monitors are in the safety department office, which is right off themain entrance to the building. If they come in and stand at the counter,they can see the video from the cameras.

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