Cameras in schools - increasing security

UPPER VALLEY - "If we don't have teachers there, then we have cameras there," said Madison School District Safety coordinator Randy Lords.

At Madison High School there's about 45 cameras on at all times. When the new High School finishes, there will be 3 times as many, all spaced 30 feet apart from each other.

"We get kids that do things and cause issues in the hallways. And then when we meet with parents they say my child wouldn't do that. No sense in arguing. Cameras just help us verify what we've seen," said Lords.

"We have cameras throughout all the Sugar-Salem School District in all the schools. These are a great deterrent first thing, and secondly if something does happen, we're able to show proof of it," said Resource Officer Cameron Stanford.

One particular camera caught two individuals stealing a purse from a car.

"Within minutes we were able to pull the video here, identify the car... Apprehend the suspects. That was within a half hour we were able to do that because of these recordings on these cameras," said Stanford.

"(Cameras) are a very important, integral part of our day. We look at the cameras repeatedly throughout the day," said Lords.

Just at Madison High School, footage is rewound and checked about 10 times a day for various incidents. Not to mention just how many times a camera just being present has prevented a problem altogether.

But just how are schools paying for these cameras? It varies between districts. While Madison and Sugar-Salem districts have been utilizing mostly grants. The Fremont School district has typically used bond money to install cameras in their new schools. Unfortunately that means most of the older schools in Fremont don't have cameras.

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• in
• schools
• security
• upper
• valley
• idaho

[MattieRydalch]

I went to Sugar when they first got the cameras.