Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

U. Kansas area may employ surveillance cameras to curb downtown crime
By Tom Slaughter
University Daily Kansan (U. Kansas)
07/24/2006

(U-WIRE) LAWRENCE, Kan. — In light of violent crimes that have occurred in recent years in downtown Lawrence, Kan., including shootings at Brothers! Bar and Grill, 1105 Massachusetts St., and The Granada, 1020 Massachusetts St. Downtown safety issues and surveillance cameras were the forefront of discussion during a public city meeting last week.

The University of Kansas, however, has used surveillance cameras for more than a year, and officials within the University believe that the cameras have a positive effect on the safety of its students.

Mascha Khramova, Russia graduate student, said she thought the security cameras were a good idea if it made students feel more secure, particularly at night. When asked if she ever felt unsafe at night, Khramova gave a succinct response.

"Actually, yeah," she said.

Khramova added that both the University and Lawrence could use better lighting.

Ralph V. Oliver, chief/director of the KU Public Safety Office, said the University considered installing surveillance cameras for several years and came to the decision that they were necessary.

Two violent crimes that occurred on campus, within the approximate span of a year, led them to expand upon the concept they were considering.

Two years ago, a car was hijacked in the parking lot of the GSP-Corbin Hall. The following year, a female was held at knife-point in the parking lot of the Lied Center.

These incidents forced the University to consider taking more precautions, particularly in parking lots and residence halls. Thus, cameras were added.

"People should feel safe to come and go to their residence halls, including visitors, without fear," Oliver said.

Vince Avila, associate director for housing maintenance, agreed that the cameras were a good idea. He said he hasn't received feedback endorsing or disclaiming the use of cameras, but he doesn't think the idea of privacy is an issue in this case.

"I don't think the privacy part of it has been brought up because they're exterior and they don't point to any windows in the halls," Avila said.

In the city meeting last week, William G. Staples, professor and chairman of the department of sociology, didn't say his opinion on the use of cameras, but merely warned the city of some of the problems associated with their usage that has been found through research.

He said often cameras are not good for preventative measures.

When people monitor cameras on closed-circuit televisions, they do so from far away and often do not understand the situations they are watching, because they don't have the benefit of hearing what is happening, cited a study conducted in United Kingdom, Staples said.

However, he added that they could be useful in apprehending suspects after events have happened.

Oliver said the Public Safety Office employs approximately 20 students to watch the closed-circuit televisions. The office conducted background checks on the employees, a practice Oliver said was atypical of most student-employers on campus.

He said that he was "quite pleased" with the work they were doing, and that as the students work on a lot of projects, "they make it their own."

Oliver did admit to one downside of the cameras, however: the cost. He said that the University uses a number of "pan-zoom-tilt" cameras — cameras with the ability to move and zoom into subjects — as opposed to fixed camera. "Pan-zoom-tilt" cameras are more expensive and take a longer time to install.

He said one benefit of the "pan-zoom-tilt" camera is that students can call the Public Safety Office from the blue security phones on campus and ask the monitors to follow them to where they need to go, by a series of cameras. The monitors can then immediately notify dispatchers if they see that student entering harm's way.

Oliver said he could not tell if the cameras were a sole preventative reason for stopping crime, but he thought that they were a critical component of what goes into keeping students safe.

"Security is not a one-approach fix," he said.

Oliver said that the publicity that the cameras recently received has reduced the number of auto burglaries that have occurred on campus, but it will take a few more years to see the overall direct approach of their use.

The Public Safety Office received "extremely positive feedback" from female students in particular, Oliver said.

"Most of the response we have gotten is, 'why haven't we done it sooner,'" he said.

Maddie Fry, Topeka sophomore, said she doesn't typically walk around campus at night, but in general she thinks cameras are useful.

"I think it's a good idea to prevent crime," she said.

Oliver said that both Memorial Stadium and Allen Fieldhouse use surveillance cameras inside and outside the complexes, respectively.

The Department of Homeland Security provided funding for the cameras in the two stadiums because it dubbed them potential targets for terrorism in the state.

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