If an escaped criminal were on the loose near Whitley County High School or Whitley County Middle School, then officials could upload his picture to a new high tech security camera system that is going to be installed at both schools.
Through a facial recognition system, if the criminal showed up at either of these schools and was caught on camera, then an alert would be triggered.
Law enforcement would be able to remotely view the footage of the suspect, and a floor plan of the school with the location of the camera that caught sight of the suspect. These are some of the features of the new 125-camera system, which was developed by Stanford engineers
The new system will include 82 indoor cameras, 43 exterior cameras, and 12 vaping censors, including eight that will be installed at the high school and four at the middle school, Chief Information Officer Kevin Anderson told the Whitley County Board of Education during its Jan. 14 monthly meeting .
“We are so blessed to have an opportunity to pursue a system like this. It is second to none,” Anderson noted.
Director of Safe Schools Patrick Bowlin said that by ordering the system this month, the district will essentially be able to get the $300,000 camera system for about $187,000.
He noted that the system will be of little to no actual cost to the district, which is utilizing a portion of the $356,388 Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant that the district received in the fall.
“We are hoping we will be able to pay for it with grant money,” Bowlin said.
The cameras can store information up to 30 days, and there is a Cloud back-up system.
The cameras will record 24-7, and can trigger an alert if there is movement.
The hardware on the system will have a 10 year warranty.
The new system will be installed by the company.
