Five Steps to Safer School Campuses
We’ve all read the headlines in shock: another school shooting somewhere in the U.S. Since 1990, California alone has had 17 school shooting incidents resulting in 45 injuries and 13 fatalities.
School safety and security is a priority at TRL Systems, and one of our core areas of expertise. Our approach emphasizes a multi-layer security strategy with at least five key elements:
Access Control. Access control provides critical information on who has entered your school and when, and clearly identifies both staff and visitors. Access control systems can be integrated with a visitor management solution that checks the background of each potential visitor. Affordable electronic wireless locks enable schools to control all interior doors as well.
Video Monitoring: In 2015, twenty-five TRL Systems employees donated their time and expertise to install a 13-camera monitoring system at Lord Baden-Powell Elementary School in Anaheim. The project’s goal was to improve school security by installing both indoor and outdoor surveillance cameras to deter potential wrongdoers and provide enhanced safety for the children and staff inside the school, as well as those entering and exiting the school. The high-end Genetec video management platform provides high-resolution images via motion-sensitive cameras capable of storing up to six weeks of video.
Alarms: Today’s sophisticated alarm management systems can display when doors are forced open or held open too long. In addition, our alarm system solutions include video verification screens that let security officers compare badges to the live image. Activity dashboards capture real-time activity across the campus-wide system, and locator features can track the route and current location of any card holder.
Visitor Management: Visitor management systems make it easy for any school - regardless of size - to easily customize and print badges for visitors in literally seconds. TRL Systems’ technology solutions can help schools screen visitors against sexual predator databases, and to check student custodial information to ensure the appropriate guardian is picking up the student.
Communication: Instant alert capability enables schools to quickly communicate with students, parents, guardians and staff through voice calls, text and email. Messages are completely customizable and can be targeted to specific groups to control who receives what information. TRL’s security experts recently implemented an emergency phone/mass notification system on the University of La Verne campus. The project included installing VoIP emergency phones, towers in and around the campus with wireless devices, system software and transformer, wireless transceiver and power charging station.
“The La Verne and Lord Paden-Powell campus projects are just two example of the value TRL is bringing to schools looking to deliver safer campuses,” says Gary Chavarria, Security Division General Manager.
“In its recent update of the Handbook for Campus Safety and Security, the U.S. Department of Education encouraged schools to integrate warning systems and emergency notification into their security plans,” Chavarria adds. “Our multi-layer approach combines those strategies, as well as additional technology solutions that control access and monitor campus activity, to offer schools an affordable, scalable way to meet the mandate for greater campus safety.”