Merging Systems

Aug 1, 2005 12:00 PM, by Randy Southerland

When it came to access control, the School District of Lee County in southwest Florida was looking for a system that allowed maximum flexibility while merging disparate systems. That challenge became particularly apparent for the district when officials partnered with the local county government to build and share new schools.

“Two of the properties were a joint effort between the two government entities, which means the access control cards would be given to the county officials, too,” says Greg Lindsay, security surveillance supervisor for the school district, which serves 80,000 students attending 72 schools.

Two schools were built on county land in an alliance between the district and county government, a necessary partnership because land is at a premium in this fast-growing community.

The gymnasium at one school site is shared with the county Parks and Recreation Department, which uses a dozen classrooms for a variety of classes including pottery and weightlifting for adults. After hours, children at this K-8 school move to the Parks and Rec facilities for additional programs.

Establishing the joint effort required issuing access cards to employees from both the county and the school system. The challenge came with the need to shut off the security alarm when someone accessed the buildings after hours.

“We knew that the county would give somebody a card to get into the building and they wouldn't have a code to shut off the alarm system — then of course we'd have a false alarm,” Lindsay says.

Those false alarms could be a heavy expenditure for the district, since response was provided by local police and fines could mount up quickly.

The situation was further complicated by the incompatibility of various access control systems used by the school district and county. Lindsay and his department selected the Topaz Access Control System from GE Security, which can integrate access control, video surveillance, alarm monitoring and photo ID badging in one package. Topaz uses a browser-style interface with color maps, interactive icons and point-and-click video.

“We needed something that could communicate with GE Security's panels, with the alarm portion and still provide the access that we needed for the buildings — the uses that we needed and the uses that Lee County government needed,” Lindsay says.

The system worked even better than anticipated — so far the district has seen an estimated 60 to 70 percent reduction in false alarms.

In addition to shutting off the alarm through the prox card, the system provides an added measure of security by refusing access to cards that have been deactivated or lack the proper security credentials.

The system also worked well with the extensive CCTV system that the district already had in place in its schools. Approximately 214 GE cameras (formerly Kalatel) are installed throughout the school systems and form the primary bulwark against vandalism and crime. They monitor hallways and entrances including all primary doors. Parking lots and outside entrances are covered by pan/tilt/zoom cameras.

“We could hook up our video cameras into the Topaz system, and, as a person accesses the buildings, we would have a video record of who came in. If somebody did try to trigger the alarm, we would have a video image of that person,” Lindsay says.

The Topaz system allows the school security office to easily assign and remove privileges to employees. The system's reporting function records all entries and exits using prox cards provided by Irvine, Calif.-based HID Corp. When integrated with the cameras, unauthorized access attempts become part of a searchable photographic record.

Lindsay has built on the school district's success in using the GE Security NetworX intrusion control panels. With the panel's capacity to cover up to 192 zones, each of the Lee County schools has been able to reduce the number of units it needs from as many as 11 in the old security system down to one. Even those few schools that have more than 200 zones can be covered with just two panels now.

By reducing the number of panels, the district was able to realize a reduction in third-party costs as well. An outside security service provides monitoring of the schools from a central station with a charge for each individual panel.

A single employee mans a central control room in the school district's headquarters to monitor the system and ensure that it runs smoothly. Cameras are also monitored on a daily basis at the individual schools. A School Resource Officer — a member of the school district's police force — is assigned to keep track of events recorded by the cameras at their individual locations.

“The video surveillance has definitely made our schools safer,” Lindsay says. “Once the students know that they're being recorded, then the violence in the schools goes down.”

No attempt is made to hide the cameras, and all teachers and students are aware they are under their gaze. While a few students have attempted to commit illegal acts such as vandalism, their quick apprehension has discouraged others.

“The incidents with students fighting and bullying has been reduced to a minimal number because they know they're being recorded and they can't get out of it if they're caught,” he says.

The installation of this system was handled in-house by Lindsay's department. One challenge was adapting older school buildings not designed to handle fiber wiring, cameras and panels.

“In a lot of our schools, computers rooms were not even thought of 10 or 15 years ago,” he says.

New buildings at eight additional schools now under construction are being built with access control and security in mind. Each facility has all the wiring, hardware and storage needed for a modern access control system.

In the near future, Lee County Schools will move to expand the system to use new features. An internal monitoring station will allow the central administration to control the system using the school's LAN and to eliminate the need to use a third-party company.

In addition, video outputs can be made available to the Lee County Sheriff's Department thus enabling deputies to tap into the cameras through a WiFi network without entering the building.

“They could drive their patrol car up to a certain location and connect to the video cameras,” Lindsay says. “We want to make it available to the authorities using laptops in their patrol cars.”

Like so many fast-growing districts in the Sunshine State, the Lee County Schools have had to meet many security challenges. Seeking out new technology that can adapt to their needs have enabled them to achieve their goals.

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