Anchorage SD Expands IP Video System to Combat Vandalism, Boost Awareness
The Challenge
As a way to address rising vandalism such as broken windows and recurring
As a way to address rising vandalism such as broken windows and recurring
playground fires at elementary schools, the Anchorage School District began
installing and experimenting with video security and surveillance systems. With
a limited budget, the district started a program that included the installation of
four to six cameras at elementary schools, six to ten cameras at middle schools,
and 10 to 15 cameras at the larger high schools. These initial systems comprised
a mix of analog cameras with on-site digital video recorders (DVR) monitoring
and recording.
“After we installed the first sets of cameras, the systems quickly received a lot
of positive use, and we started getting requests for expanded capabilities,”
said Kelly Kass, Project Manager, Anchorage School District. “With the cameras,
people could monitor areas of the school they were not able to see before. This
helped users realize there was a lot they were not seeing.”
The Solution
With the initial installations, the district saw a reduction in vandalism and
they were able to record several events that helped with identifying and
apprehending suspects. However, it was the overall increased situational
awareness that deemed the initial test a success. Administrators decided to
install more cameras and build a more capable video management system. Over
the course of the next few years, the district deployed cameras at several more
school sites.
After trying to gain more functionality from their analog/DVR-based video
system, the district contacted Anixter and asked if they could suggest a path to
move forward with migrating to an IP-based system. Anixter had been involved
in the district’s cabling infrastructure for several years, and additionally saw
success in Milestone-based IP video systems with other customers, including
another school district.
“Our suggestion was to go with Milestone. But knowing what challenges the
district had faced with the proprietary analog system, we suggested they
do a side-by-side evaluation of the top three VMS platforms that we worked
with,” said Bob Thibault, RCDD, Alaska Territory Manager, Anixter. “This was a
controlled evaluation that lasted for several months. We helped make sure they
used the same integrator and the exact same cameras in each system. After
reviewing and meeting with the different schools and having the principals
visit the alternate schools, the district unanimously decided on the Milestone
platform.”
Advantages
The Milestone VMS was selected based on a range of included features, ease
of use, devices supported, technical support, performance and cost evaluation.
Once Milestone was officially chosen as the VMS, the district requested bids
from the local authorized Milestone integrators. Siemens Industry Inc. Building
Technologies Division was the integrator of choice.
The district then decided to have a single integrator perform all the camera
programming and configuration, regardless of which contractor was doing the
camera installation. Siemens was awarded a contract to support all cameras and
installations for Milestone at all the Anchorage schools.
Since then the district has installed 50 Milestone systems. As funding becomes
available, they continue to upgrade and expand more schools to Milestone VMS.
“At this point, every school in the district has some sort of camera system,” said
Kass. “We have the older systems still in place in about half the schools, but as
IP cameras continue to get better and less expensive, we look at new models
to meet our needs in specific areas. Perhaps long-range zoom cameras and
some specialty cameras for monitoring playgrounds and parking lots will be
considered.”
Fights, Tech Theft, Costly Fires, Broken Windows
Within the Anchorage School District, playground fires are a real problem. The
elementary school playgrounds make use of shredded rubber mulch as a surface
under the playground equipment. The surface is soft, durable, weather resistant
and made of recycled sources, but unfortunately it burns (if intentionally lit),
and the Anchorage School District has had three or four playground fires
each summer since use of the mulch began. Most fires are vandalism, and one
documented fire was accidental. Each fire costs the district about $100,000 to
replace or repair the playground.
The use of cameras has helped identify the cause of fires and identification of
suspects. With proper evidence restitution from the suspect is possible, and
the district is looking toward more capable cameras for addressing this unique
requirement.
“Vandalism is the ultimate reason for the video systems,” said Kass. “But as
things have played out at the high school level, we’ve had a good deal of
use in accurately identifying students involved in fights, even vindicating the
non-aggressor. With video, we can quickly see who the instigator was and act
accordingly.”
Kass explained that at middle schools and high schools, there is a lot of
equipment and technology within reach. The use of video has helped reduce
theft and aided in narrowing down the students involved. Video monitoring
also alerts officials to large student gatherings, and provides the ability to notice
students or visitors in restricted areas.
Elementary schools primarily use cameras on the exterior, for monitoring and
“buzzing in” visitors at the entrances, as well as watching the playgrounds.
Window breakage is also a costly problem. Many of the district’s schools are
remote, and there is no direct view of houses or shopping centers to keep an eye
out for vandals.
“Window breakage was getting so bad that one year we boarded up every
window in the Anchorage School District that wasn’t in plain sight of the
community,” said Kass. “After the cameras were installed, we started seeing
a reduction of breakage, and now we’ve stopped boarding up the windows
altogether.”
The district’s many remote sites present such a challenge that they offer a
program for RV campers to park on the school grounds during the summer,
offering free space, water and power so their presence can act as a deterrent
to crime and vandalism. The installation of cameras is slowly replacing this
program, with the cameras able to provide 24/7 coverage as well as video
documentation of events.
Training and Connectivity
An important component to the district’s success with the video system
involved Milestone’s ability to provide on-site user training. Milestone certified
instructors provided detailed training and instruction for about 100 Anchorage
School District administrators, security professionals, and IT personnel. The goal
was to make the district as effective and self-supportive as possible, right from
the beginning.
“One of the beauties of the new system is that it’s very easy to access the video,
said Kass. “The old DVR system was very cumbersome, but the Milestone VMS
is very intuitive. Anytime users have a question, they access the Help Menu, and
answer their own questions. The system is so intuitive, we get very few calls.”
To address bandwidth issues, the systems are leveraging Milestone Federated
Architecture for all the school servers, keeping all the recorded video on site but
allowing administrators to access the connected systems from a single central
location, no matter where they are on the network.
Over the last three years, the district has deployed 1,270 Milestone device
licenses with a total projected scope targeted at 2,700 cameras in the future.
The district’s policy is to keep recorded video for 30 days with individual schools
archiving events as needed.
Anchorage School District uses Cisco IP network components, so all switches are
Cisco standardized and all district IT personnel are Cisco certified.
The Crown Jewel — A.J. Dimond High School
A.J. Dimond High School is one of eight comprehensive high schools in the
Anchorage School District, home to approximately 1,750 students and over
150 faculty and staff. After an extensive upgrade and facility expansion,
administrators and integrators took advantage of the school’s updated
infrastructure and pathways to install a first-class, IP-based video security
system.
Currently, the high school has 80 cameras installed throughout the campus.
Many cameras are internal, with public display monitors in view to help act as a
visual deterrent to vandalism and crime. Perimeter and parking lot cameras are
also in use. A dual-server system accommodates the volume of video bandwidth
without taxing the server too much.
Officer Mark Wells is the School Resource Officer for A.J. Dimond High School,
who works on-site to reduce juvenile crime through law enforcement,
education, and prevention programs. His goal is to provide positive law
enforcement support that concentrates on safety and security, and encourage
relationships between officers, school administrators, teachers and students.
Officer Wells uses the Milestone video surveillance system at the school on a
daily, if not hourly, basis. Although he wouldn’t describe himself as a technical
person, Officer Wells has a great deal of appreciation for the system’s
ease of use.
“The Milestone system is really simple. The people I work with here think I’m an
expert, but I’m not. It’s just an awesome product,” said Wells. “It’s really quite
simple. If I need a camera that’s not on the screen, I just drag and drop it over
from the list of networked cameras and it’s then in my view to work with.”
Officer Wells is responsible for A.J. Dimond High School as well as for Mears
Middle School and the elementary schools that feed into both schools.
“I monitor several different systems, but from a usability perspective, they’re
all pretty close to the same,” said Wells. “The systems are all Milestone-based,
so I’m very comfortable going to each school, accessing their video, navigating
the system, and researching events. The system is intuitive enough that I can
navigate and use each system.”
Wells added that the system’s easy-to-use search mode saves him and
administrators a great deal of time. From locating missing equipment to missing
students, the video surveillance system has become an invaluable tool for
forensic research.
“If we noticed something missing in the past, we would have no way of tracking
it down and figuring out what happened,” said Wells. “With the Milestone
system, I can plug in a specific date as a search start point, and usually within
about 10 minutes I can figure out when something disappeared, and who was
in the area at the time. That’s how I judge any website or application: if I can get
in and quickly find what I need, it’s a good piece of software. Milestone is very
easy to use, and I’ve been very happy.”