Home to Florida’s capital of Tallahassee, Leon County is among the largest public school districts in the state serving 33,000 students at 48 campuses. With dozens of school campuses and virtually no comprehensive video surveillance system, Leon County Schools was seeking an affordable, yet effective, video surveillance system solution when they first approached Video Insight in 2007.

Challenge
Large School District Needs Affordable & Effective Surveillance System

Safety and Security Director John Hunkiar said Leon County Schools sought to ensure that the 48 campus perimeters and administration buildings were safe from unauthorized access and use. They desired to have a full-fledged video surveillance solution but wanted something simple that they could easily install and maintain.

School Security is Leon County School’s number one priority, and the progressive district is a national leader in utilizing technology to maintain safe learning environments.

“We did a great deal of research when looking at different video surveillance companies,” said Hunkiar. “We were looking for a company in particular that would strictly deal with the software and didn’t have to include a lot of hardware as part of the deal. We found that Video Insight offered us everything we were looking for.” Leon County Schools also sought to incorporate access control to some of their administrative facilities to secure sensitive and confidential data.

Leon County chose an analog system consisting of rack mount Dell 2950 servers and 32 cameras per school campus, yielding more than 1,500 cameras in all. Currently, that represents cameras at 24 elementary schools, eight middle schools, six high schools and more than 10 special campuses, and administrative buildings. They also continue to add more cameras as their needs increase and their configuration changes.

The cameras are primarily set to monitor and record building exteriors and parking lots with the prime task of deterring unauthorized campus access and visitors, as well as illegal activity including vandalism, said Hunkiar.

“One of the best features is that authorized personnel can watch the cameras from our state-of-the-art monitoring station or remotely, whichever is most convenient for them,” said Hunkiar. “Image storage demands are also adequately met and easily accessed.”

Leon County Schools also chose to implement Video Insight’s card access control system in order to secure confidential information in a few administrative areas. Building Management Systems Coordinator, Jim Sciara, has been instrumental in building automation and oversees Leon County Schools’ technical security camera program.

“Access control and security cameras are becoming more commonplace in Florida schools. There are many benefits to these systems when meeting the demands of tiered access levels and providing accountability,” said Sciara.

Since Leon County Schools had just “16 cameras at a couple of sites” on their vast school district, it was a considerable job outfitting more than 48 buildings with the analog system they selected. Both Hunkiar and Sciara agree that Video Insight has surpassed their expectations and has offered professional support as well as increased capability over the last two years.

“We have been very pleased with the products and the service we have received. It’s very easy to use – we do the installation and the maintenance, as well as all of the training,” said Sciara.

“We continue to work with Video Insight adding new equipment on a regular basis and as we grow we plan to continue to utilize their expertise,” said Hunkiar.

Pictured is the video surveillance monitoring station at Leon County, Florida, Public Schools.