Watching over campus
There are more than 100 security cameras set up across GCSU, including the Village at West Campus. Each one is recorded by Public Safety, and can be reviewed at any time to assist in investigations.
Detective Robert Butler with Public Safety uses the cameras in the majority of his investigative work.
“Depending on the situation, if it’s something that did happen on campus where we might have an image, we use them easily 50-80 percent of the time,” Butler said.
The cameras are stationed all over, though the highest concentrations are around the Centennial Center and around the residence halls. The library, which has its own separate system from the one Public Safety uses, is also well covered. Public Safety can remotely access the library cameras if the need arises.
All of the cameras feed back to the Public Safety office for review.
“We have a dispatch system in front (of the Public Safety Building) and have someone manning it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year,” Butler said.
The cameras that currently operate record in classic video. A new system of cameras is being slowly introduced, beginning with the new multipurpose building at West Campus.
“The newer cameras that we have installed would be the latest building, the auxiliary building out at West campus,” Butler said. “It has digital cameras and also has a digital recorder. It’s more of a pixel style camera where the clarity is better.”
The new cameras will have higher resolution images to help assist Public Safety in identifying suspects in campus incidents.
“What we’ve seen over the years is that the live camera footage is usually clear, and then the playback can be a little bit grainier,” Butler said. “And the majority of the times we’re going to review the camera will be on playback, and not on live. And usually we have grainy images to work with, so what we tried to do was go to a higher-end camera with a more higher-end type recorder that we can have just as clear a playback as we do live footage.”
The current cameras record in color during the day, but after dark they switch black-and-white mode so that they can gather as much light as possible. The newer camera system will be in constant color, 24 hours a day.
Many of the cameras are stationary, but not all of them are.
“We do have some that are called a PTZ, a pan-tilt-zoom camera,” Butler said. “They do a pre-set rotation, pre-set recording from anything to like a door to the whole campus. It scans whatever preset we place in the camera.”
The cameras are divided into 12 different zones, each drawing power from a different source. Several have backup generators, so that in the instance of a power outage, the cameras would still be in full operation.
The cameras have helped Public Safety identify suspects many times in the past.
“We had a criminal damage to property where we had three vehicles that were damaged on Montgomery Street,” Butler said. “We were successfully able to ID the perpetrator with a camera, along with witness statements.”
The cameras are often used to identify license plate numbers, which are in turn run through the GCIC so that Public Safety can identify suspects.
“We had an indecent exposure where a guy exposed himself,” Butler said. “He was in a vehicle over off Greene Street, he was a non-student, but he exposed himself to a student. The cameras were easily 90-95 percent of the investigation. We were able to ID the suspect’s car and make an arrest.”
Many of the cameras are out of easy reach of students, but there have been occasions before where they have been blocked by students. Butler said that Public Safety has different ways of dealing with this issue.
“It depends on the situation,” Butler said. “If someone is doing it to commit a crime, then they can be charged with obstruction. If someone’s just horsing around then we’ll handle everything internally and send it to the student judiciary board.”
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Oct 3 2008. Filed under News.
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