$3.7M camera system links Baltimore Co. police to elementary schools

$3.7M camera system links Baltimore Co. police to elementary schools 

 TOWSON, Md. —Baltimore County unveiled Tuesday its new $3.7 million sophisticated security camera network that will be at all of the county's elementary schools, helping to make security tighter.

The system upgrade was in reaction to the shooting that injured a student inside Perry Hall High School on the first day of classes in 2012.

"We talk about academics for BCPS, but if the safety aspect is not there for our students and families, nothing else will, in fact, matter," said county schools Superintendent Dallas Dance.

The new One View system was unveiled at the Police Command Center, where officers demonstrated how they can get live video feeds from Riverview Elementary School in Halethorpe and Scotts Branch Elementary School in Randallstown.

All of the county's 107 elementary schools now have the security cameras. The new system gives police and school resources officers direct access to real-time school surveillance cameras.

"They can access it from their vehicles, from the precincts, from their control and command center, from a simple mobile device that we each carry or any other location where they have secure access," said Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz.

The system includes at least three strategically placed cameras per school.

Officers are able to access the cameras from multiple devices to pull up a floor plan of the school, select the camera or cameras that they wish to access and view real-time video on up to six cameras on a single device, enabling them to watch, in succession, a person from the time they enter the school to the time they get to the office.

Officials said that could make for a smarter response during any kind of incident.

"If you can imagine for a moment that you're an SRO and you're in the gymnasium of a school, but yet you're a little concerned about the cafeteria because you heard something may be brewing," explained Baltimore County Police Chief Jim Johnson. "Well, you don't want to leave the gym because you're focused on that issue. On your iPad, you can simply punch up the video of the cafeteria."

He said the mere existence of the technology will go a long way -- something the county hopes will soon be in middle and high schools.

"Students, realizing that cameras are in the schools, do you think that will alter their behavior? We do," Johnson said.

Of the $3.7 million spent on the project, $1 million came from speed camera revenue, while the rest came from the general fund of the county budget, county officials said.