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The top story on
the Drudge Report yesterday was about
a school in New Jersey that is sending live feeds from their 20 school cameras directly to the police. The Drudge Report is a conservative leaning news source, so it ran the story to decry the lack of privacy in the modern world.
DEMAREST, N.J. (CBS) ―
Surveillance cameras rolling inside our local schools is nothing new,
but what's taking place inside Demarest's public schools is truly
cutting edge: a live feed from more than two dozen cameras with a
direct connection to the police.
It's an expensive, but effective tool that could be a sign of the times with an increase in school shootings over the years.
The system, which cost about $28,000, can even track movement in a crowded room.
"When
they arrive, they can pull up the school's live feed and do a sweep
instantly," Demarest Police Chief James Powderley tells CBS 2.
Patrolling
officers have access to the video feed from headquarters and several
laptops. To address privacy concerns, all of the cameras are installed
in public areas and are not equipped to pick up audio.
The
video capabilities are extremely impressive. Each of the laptops can
pick up 16 different angles at one time, turning a single operator into
a mobile surveillance team.
The
Video from WCBS, New York.
This represents the next step in school video surveillance. While I too am concerned about the lack of privacy, with the cameras only in public areas and given the current state of the law regarding privacy in schools, I see nothing clearly illegal under current law about this activity.
What I am concerned more about (although this story does concern me) is the increasing relationship between schools and the police. In cases such as this, it is almost as if the police are the school's private security firm. Because of the differences in the law regarding how police treat the public and how school authorities treat school children, mingling the two authorities in schools can be problematic. Police are trained for a different purpose than school authorities are trained and their responses to school disciplinary incidents are naturally going to be different. There is a certain degree of administrative discretion in school authorities (who are always former teachers) that police are not trained or qualified to enforce.
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