Evanston Township High School administrators and District 202 board members are considering updating the school’s security camera system with digital recorders to deter crime.
The new digital recording systems would replace some of the VCRs currently used to monitor the school’s hallways, said Steve Grbavac, director of operations and purchasing for ETHS.
The new equipment would take clearer pictures and speed up the tape-viewing process. Unlike VCRs, which record continuously, digital recorders only take pictures when they detect activity. Therefore, viewers have less footage to search through if a crime occurs.
If the proposal is approved, officials will put in 16 new cameras and four digital recorders with the remaining $48,000 in bond money used to install security cameras in the school in 1999. The original project cost $1 million and included installation of more than 500 cameras and 38 VCRs.
Margaret Lurie, vice president of the D202 school board, said the proposal could be discussed at an Oct. 11 finance meeting.
“I think it is a good idea,” Lurie said. “I’ve been very impressed with having the cameras in the first place.”
According to ETHS spokeswoman Kathy Miehls, graffiti and vandalism decreased by about 75 percent four months after the cameras were installed. The cameras are designed to deter students from vandalism more than to prevent fights, Miehls said.
Miehls said the cameras are not in lockerrooms or bathrooms, which follows precedent in Illinois.
Along with changing some of the recorders, additional cameras also may be added. Grbavac said ETHS officials are considering adding cameras at the main entrance of the school and in the parking lot. Because ETHS has multiple parking lots for visitors, students and faculty, putting cameras in the parking lot could be difficult, Grbavac said.
The Illinois State Board of Education remains neutral on the subject of security cameras in schools and leaves the decision to individual school districts. The state board does not provide state money for cameras.
“I hate to see schools becoming more and more like prisons without strong evidence that it is needed,” said Myron Mason, an Illinois State Board of Education principal consultant.
Along with other schools in the Chicago area that have installed security cameras, Reavis High School in suburban Burbank put in cameras with digital recording systems this summer. Administrators were able to catch a purse theft on the first day the cameras were used, said Dan Riordan, the school’s administrative dean.
Riordan said there are two reasons to spend $200,000 on 48 cameras: to catch students who commit crimes and to deter others from doing so. Two years ago there were no security cameras on school buses at Reavis, but crime has decreased since their installation, he said.
“Having cameras on the bus has created an environment that has deterred students from doing things that they are not suppose to be doing,” he said.
