North Carolina Schools Updating Video Surveillance on Buses
"It's an additional safety feature that our board and administration felt like was absolutely worth the investment. And again as we always do, safety is going to be our number one concern. And this is just another one of those layers of safety," district communications director Meredith Bounds said.
- By Jessica Davis
- January 14, 2019
The Public Schools of Scotland County, N.C., is installing new, upgraded surveillance cameras on its 62 school buses, according to district communications director Meredith Bounds.
The new cameras will replace outdated video surveillance originally installed in 2005, Bounds told ABC15 News. The old cameras began to have problems, so the district worked to replace them with new and updated technology.
"Scotland County has always been very innovative when it comes to a variety of things and this is no different,” Bounds said. “About a year ago, the governor of N.C. asked a group of legislators to get together around the state and really look at school safety measures that are being taken. We had an opportunity to meet regionally with some other districts and see what each other were doing and, so far as, when it came to safety measures and what procedures and policies we had in place. And even then, we were proud to know that many of the steps we already had in place the last several years to ensure our students and staff were safe as possible.”
Bounds said that the new cameras will cover a 360-degree range of view inside and outside of the buses. Administrators will be able to monitor the buses in real time via WiFi on the buses that connects to the district’s system.
"It's an additional safety feature that our board and administration felt like was absolutely worth the investment. And again as we always do, safety is going to be our number one concern. And this is just another one of those layers of safety," Bounds said.
The new cameras should be installed on the district buses by March.
About the Author
Jessica Davis is the Associate Content Editor for 1105 Media.