Creating A Campus-wide Digital Surveillance Solution
Texas Tech University has implemented video surveillance solutions throughout their expansive and open campus
- By George Watson
- June 01, 2018
At more than 1,800 acres, Texas Tech University is
spread out over a wide swath of the central part of the
City of Lubbock. There are also numerous entry points
on to university grounds on all sides, though there are
only a few roads that reach completely from one side of
the campus to the other.
Still, maintaining a secure campus over such a wide area with
numerous entry points is an ongoing challenge for those charged with
the safety and security of the faculty, staff and students at Texas Tech,
not to mention the multitude of university visitors and outside workers,
delivery drivers and construction employees.
“It is challenging,” said Ronald Phillips, who serves as University
Counsel and also is responsible for overseeing campus security and
emergency management activities at Texas Tech. “We have a very large
campus and it’s a very open campus, and we have a lot of access points
to cover.”
In an ongoing effort to improve campus safety and security, Texas
Tech has instituted a program to install security cameras at random
locations across campus, hopefully to not only deter crime from happening
on campus but also to assist the Texas Tech Police Department
with investigating and solving crimes that do happen on campus.
“I think there’s a certain practical benefit to the cameras, and a psychological
one,” said Lawrence Schovanec, president of Texas Tech
University. “People who might have ill intentions hopefully will be
deterred by knowing they are under surveillance, and those already on
campus might feel more secure knowing that security is there. They are
a greater resource to react to any incident that does occur.”
THE NEED FOR SURVEILLANCE
While there were incidents on campus during the fall that would seem,
from the outside, to be the catalyst for the addition of security cameras
on campus, the initiative for them actually goes back about 18 months.
Texas Tech Police Chief Kyle Bonath said a carjacking on campus
showed security officials there was not only a need for new security
cameras but a need to update the ones already in existence. Not only
were there a plethora of different brands of security cameras throughout
campus, there also are different organizations in charge of their
maintenance and upkeep.
That led to the organization of the Campus Automated Safety and
Security (CASS) committee. Composed of members from the Student Government Association, the President’s
office, the Office of Information Technology
(IT), plant operations and the police
department, the committee was tasked with
determining the best method for adding
additional cameras and ensuring proper
monitoring and upkeep.
“We looked at some different things,” Bonath
said. “Buildings were blocked by tree canopies,
and lower levels didn’t get us a farenough
view.”
Bonath said he looked at another university
in the state that had a camera on top of an
emergency phone located in a parking lot
near the football field, and that got him thinking.
Texas Tech has several emergency phones
located across campus indicated by a bright
blue light on top of the phone’s structure, and
the idea became adding cameras on top of
these “blue phones.”
“They have, for the most part, the power
and all the necessary features we need,” Bonath
said. “So we can use the power conduits
already there. Then we realized they are about
two feet above the structure, and that gives us
a good purview under the tree canopies in the
spring and summer when the trees are all
leaved out. It gives us a good perspective, and
there are enough of them at the right height
that you aren’t seeing people like ants but you
can get some recognition.”
At that point, Bonath said, officials highlighted
the areas around campus where cameras
were most needed and could give a good
view of areas on campus where there is high
student foot traffic, bus traffic and where cars
most often enter campus.
From there, the plan was developed to
begin with four new security cameras placed
on random blue phones across campus, with
the hopes of adding a total of 20 cameras as
the budget allows. The cameras will be hardwired
back to a monitoring station where
footage will be recorded and archived for
180 days.
“They’re basically 360-degree, 365-daysper-
year, 24-7 cameras where we can get a
good perspective of what is going on,” Bonath
said. “Once we get all the ones we want up,
there should be very limited empty spots on
campus that aren’t able to be covered by at
least one of these cameras.”
MONITORING AND MAINTENANCE
Bonath is keenly aware of the perception having
security cameras across campus can have
with those being monitored, but he wants to
assure those on campus that Big Brother is
not monitoring them around the clock.
That’s why the task of monitoring the cameras
will fall on the operations department
and not the police department. Operations
will be responsible for the day-to-day control
of the cameras, ensuring they are operational
and focused on the correct section of campus
property. If there is an issue with transmission
of footage over the hardwired lines, IT will be
called in to fix the problem.
If there is an event or safety concern the
police need to track, they will then take over
monitoring and operation of the cameras.
Texas Tech police will be the only department
allowed to go and pull archived footage
in order to determine if a crime was caught
on camera.
“We’re trying to be sensitive to the overall
privacy of the students and faculty but also
provide the most secure environment,” Bonath
said. “It’s a balancing act between public
order and privacy.”
Both Bonath and Phillips are confident the
addition of the cameras will greatly enhance
security and safety on campus, but both
acknowledge they are only part of the bigger
picture of campus safety.
“That’s an ongoing process, and you never
stop evolving and trying to perfect things
with changes in technology, changes in automation,
all those things that are out there that
can be used in some form for public safety,”
Bonath said.
ADDITIONAL SAFETY MEASURES
Security cameras aren’t the only additions or
enhancements Texas Tech has made in campus
security.
Phillips said Texas Tech also has increased
the number of license-plate readers around
campus. Several locations are equipped with
license-plate readers to help monitor traffic
on campus. Those readers can help police if
they need to locate a certain vehicle and see at
what point it entered campus.
Building access and security is also being
evaluated. Phillips said cameras are being
added when new buildings are constructed,
and entry through controlled access security
is being utilized.
Texas Tech also is updating building alarm
systems for fire and weather-related emergencies,
with the capability to use a public address
system to notify building inhabitants of the
need to exit the building in case of a fire or
move to secure location within the building
in case of severe weather.
This is in addition to the TechAlert system
where students, faculty and staff are notified
by phone and email of emergency situations on campus. Phillips added that recently Texas Tech officials realized
there were others on campus who may not receive TechAlert messages
who need to be notified of emergency situations. A process was developed
where those individuals could provide their contact information,
which was then added to TechAlert.
“We must be diligent in improving security measures and we must
continually be improving our physical security across campus,” Phillips
said. “We have asked the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS)
to perform a campus security and safety review and they will be looking
closely at these things and providing recommendations for
improvement. Texas Tech is fortunate in that we have a police department
on campus because not all universities do.”
Schovanec said he expects the report from the DPS to suggest Texas
Tech take specific actions to continue to improve campus security,
some of which may already be planned.
“It’s sort of an evolving process, where you reassess
what you have, you look at new challenges and
also think of new technologies that you can bear to
address those new challenges,” Schovanec said.
This article originally appeared in the June 2018 issue of Campus Security Today.