Utah District Agrees to Stream Security Video to Law Enforcement in Case of Crisis
Davis School District officials announced Tuesday a new agreement allowing its security cameras to be streamed live to the Davis County Sheriff’s Office in an emergency.
- By Jessica Davis
- April 11, 2019
Davis School District officials announced Tuesday a new agreement with the Davis County Sheriff’s Office to allow its campus security cameras to be streamed live to law enforcement in the event of an emergency.
“Anything we can do to make our school safer, we’re going to do it,” district spokesperson Chris Williams said.
The district will spend about $3 million in the next 15 months to continue upgrading its 6,000 security cameras from analog to digital in order to make streaming video possible. Once the system is running, law enforcement will be able to pull up the video feed on a laptop outside school grounds or in large monitors in its operations center.
Sheriff Kelly Sparks believes the feeds could make a huge difference in an active attacker situation, allowing responders to locate suspects and potential victims.
“This is a life-saving process,” Sparks said. “We could literally be the eyes and ears from inside the school to those officers that are entering the school.”
Parents have expressed concern about student privacy, but Williams said the agreement specifies that the cameras would only be livestreamed in a crisis.
“These cameras are only in emergency situations. There isn’t someone sitting at a monitor watching the 6,000 cameras that we’ll have in our [90] schools,” Williams said.
Sparks said the likelihood of an attacker at a Davis County campus is small, but he wants every tool at his disposal in case of an emergency.
“The more prepared we are to respond to those kinds of situations and to prevent those kinds of situations, the more comfort that should bring us,” he said.
About the Author
Jessica Davis is the Associate Content Editor for 1105 Media.