Digital Surveillance in Schools

In United States of America, schools have been looked upon as a place of learning, grooming and personality development. It is a place for children to come and get a proper education in a safe and secure environment. But over the years, this scenario has changed due to a lot violent activities and accidents that have been taking place in schools and other institutions.

Recent attacks include the attack in Virginia Tech where a Korean student killed 21 students on the university campus with a gun before killing himself. These kinds of attacks are on the rise and this has prompted schools to equip themselves with better safety equipments and look for newer and secure ways to make schools a safer place for students. The measures include installation of metal detectors, surveillance cameras and CCTV cameras .But inspite of all this, the violent activities have not stopped down.

On the basis of the recent violent activities taking place in schools, Newcomerstown school district in Newcomerstown, Ohio have started evaluating their capabilities to protect students from school violence. Discarding the traditional surveillance system through tapes, they have shifted to digital surveillance.

Digital surveillance is a technique of recording events live on a hard disk so that these can be played again , should the need arise. It differs from the traditional surveillance system in the fact that it is a computer based system and it also provides the facility of video sharing.

The traditional system of retrieving videos from tape involved a tedious process and the quality was also poor. It was frustrating for school authorities to review the incident on tape due to these disadvantages. The school then opted for digital surveillance system as it was cheap, effective in retrieving videos and required less storage. Thus, the school prepared itself for any future violent activities.