Cameras are a common sight in halls, cafeterias in Rockland schools

Wetchester Journal News | March 13 2006
By ALICE GOMSTYN

Mark McNeill calls it the final phase of an evolution of school security: cameras, suspended from hallway ceilings and perched over parking lots, running 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"The cameras just complete the procedures we thought, if we had in place, would assure that we've done everything we can to just have a safe environment," said McNeill, the superintendent of Nanuet schools.

Nanuet began installing cameras last month, making it among the latest of school districts — from Mahopac to Ramapo Central and beyond — to go in front of the lens.

"There has been a growing trend toward the installation of cameras to supplement the supervision of students," said Ronald Stephens, head of the National School Safety Center, a California-based group that helps schools improve security.

Administrators and experts say cameras offer two distinct benefits: They can deter misconduct by students who know they are being watched, and they can catch misconduct as it takes place, making it easier for officials to identify and discipline the troublemakers.

"Of the nation's 100 largest school districts, I would expect that every one is using cameras somewhere in the district," Stephens said.

Several factors explain the trend.

Some districts decide to install cameras for reasons specific to them — problems with bullying or vandalism, for example. Others point to the Sept. 11 terror attacks, which resulted in tighter security measures just about everywhere. Some say the major wake-up call on school safety came with the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.

"You need to have cameras in the schools," said Lucy Cassie, the mother of a Nanuet High School sophomore. "That's just the way it is these days with all that we have going on in the world."

Cameras usually are placed in common areas, such as hallways, cafeterias and parking lots, but not bathrooms or locker rooms.

"Once you start getting into private space," Stephens said, "it becomes a violation of the individual right to privacy."

There typically are fewer cameras in elementary schools than in high schools, where students tend to have more off-campus activities during the school day. With all that coming and going, Stephens said, it's harder to distinguish students from potentially unwelcome visitors.

Several schools in Westchester already have installed surveillance cameras or are considering doing so. The Rye schools have had cameras for years in the middle and high schools. The Lakeland district also has security cameras, which were approved as part of a $22.8 million borrowing plan in 2002. The Irvington school district has been discussing the issue of putting cameras on buses and is likely to do so before the end of the school year.

Administrators say the cameras work. In Pearl River, footage from a surveillance camera once helped officials identify a person who called in a bomb threat using a pay phone inside a school building. In New Rochelle, which recently upgraded its 15-year-old high school system to include larger cameras, loitering and behavioral problems in hallways are down.

"The new security mentality is to have cameras that are visible. They're larger and they act more as a deterrent," Principal Don Connetta said. "The students are aware the cameras are there."

As technology has evolved, so have security cameras. New Rochelle High School has switched from an analog system — which records images on videotape — to digital recording. The Ramapo Central school district, which installed cameras in its schools six years ago, also is upgrading to a digital system.

The new systems will make it easier for administrators to skip to specific pieces of footage. It's akin to skipping chapters on a DVD, said Ramapo Central Superintendent Robert MacNaughton.

"Let's say you thought you had a break-in, maybe somewhere from 1 to 3 in the morning," he said. "You could immediately go to that particular time."

Districts vary in how they treat live camera feeds. In New Rochelle, security staff are responsible every day for watching 30 monitors linked to cameras throughout the high school campus. In Ramapo Central, monitors are placed in areas where they can be seen by administrators, faculty and security guards, but no one is formally assigned to watch them.

The cost of school surveillance systems also varies and may correlate with the school's or district's size. Ramapo Central, which has about 4,600 students, paid $240,000 for its upgrades. Nanuet, with one of the area's smallest enrollments — about 2,400 students — is paying $77,500.

There are drawbacks to the growing popularity of school surveillance cameras. They can cause discontent among students, who may feel administrators are using cameras to "sneak up" on them.

"There's a fine line between supervision and what students perceive as 'snoopervision,' " Stephens said.

Billy Farrell, a Suffern High School student, said he didn't mind the cameras.

"I don't think they should go overboard with it," he said, "but I guess a few are all right."

Cameras also may lead students to simply move any illicit or dangerous activities to places they know aren't being monitored.

And when an area appears to have camera surveillance but actually doesn't — a camera may be there but no one monitors it, or a camera dome has been installed but there's no camera inside — schools may open themselves up to lawsuits for failing to provide the supervision a camera's presence would imply, Stephens said.

Overall, despite their benefits, cameras are no cure-all for school safety problems, Stephens said. Columbine High School, he noted, already had cameras installed at the time of the shootings.

"There's no foolproof system out there," he said. "The camera surveillance can be a part of helping deter and prevent crime as well as document the crime, but it's certainly no guarantee that crime will never happen."

In Nanuet, McNeill said, the cameras will provide "that extra bit of comfort."

The district, he said, "is just trying to have as many safety procedures as we can."

"It's in," he said, "the tenor of the times."

Last modified March 13, 2006