Education Solutions | Case Studies
Eustace ISD Takes a Hybrid Approach to Video Surveillance
The City of Eustace is a small town in east Texas with a population of less than 1000. Its school district, Eustace ISD, however, draws 1600 students from the surrounding areas. There are 4 separate campuses: a primary school (PreK-2), an intermediate school (3-5), a middle school (6-8) and a high school (9-12). Also associated with the school district is a stadium that is used for football and track events.
The Problem
Eustace ISD
Stadium monitored using PTZ cameras
Until recently, Eustace ISD had only VCR's on each campus. The tapes were cumbersome and the systems were unreliable. Video surveillance was solely the responsibility of the security police with no assistance from the Information Technology department. As frequently is the case, security wanted total ownership. However, to insure the safety of their students and to deter crimes such as vandalism, Eustace knew that they needed to upgrade their existing systems.
The Solution
After doing an extensive search for new video surveillance systems, Eustace ISD selected Video Insight products. Video Insight provided a PC based product suite that supported both analog and IP cameras. Eustace eventually wanted to migrate to IP cameras but they also did not want the expense of replacing all of their analog cameras. They loved the fact that with the single Network Client accessing all feeds, they had the flexibility to monitor all systems from one location or many. Even more important was the ability to view their live and recorded video over the internet.
The responsibility for video surveillance has evolved at Eustace. Originally, surveillance was not the responsibility of the Information Technology department. But as their requirements became more complex, the security police and the technology group joined forces to provide surveillance that took advantage of the best of both worlds. The result is a sophisticated network of over 30 analog and IP cameras located throughout the four campuses as well as PTZ cameras mounted on both ends of the stadium. You even view a weather cam directly on the Eustace ISD website. Live and recorded video is monitored centrally from the Special Services offices but access and responsibilities for smaller groups of cameras are also delegated throughout various offices and campuses.
Funding is always an issue at most ISD's; and Eustace is no different. To accomplish their goals, they took a creative approach to acquiring the budget. No single department had sufficient discretionary budget to fund the project. So, they pooled their resources; the Security force budget was used to cover the costs of the Video Insight cards and software, whereas, various campus, IT and administration budgets were used to cover the costs of the server hardware. Grants are even pursued, sometimes from less than obvious sources, such as an insurance group’s risk mitigation fund.
Using these resources, the Middle School became the pilot. After the system was in place and successful for a year, funding for expansion was readily available and Eustace has added the high school to the list of the monitored campuses as well as the stadium. The system has even been demonstrated at meetings of the Eustace school board.
The Results
What about the results? “There is no doubt that the systems have acted as a deterrent to crime”, says Rusty Meyners, Eustace ISD Network Administrator. Students are aware of the existence of the cameras and there are even “dummy” cameras in place. When a crime does occur, the offending student frequently admits to his crime since he knows that video is being monitored and recorded. The program has been so successful, that even more expansion is planned for the near future, primarily with the purchase of additional IP cameras. And how do the security police feel? Security officer Haskell Cook has been completely won over and now plans to have a wireless PC in his squad car so that he will have constant access to the surveillance system. Clearly, Eustace ISD has come along way in providing a sophisticated system for insuring safety and security.
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