Los Medanos College will be receiving new security cameras in the coming months.
“There are ongoing discussions on a district wide level of adding cameras to all the parking lots that are monitoring the entrances and exits of all the parking lots and there is also further discussions on top of that that would discuss bringing those cameras into common areas such as the quads, hallways and things like that,” said police lieutenant Ryan Huddleston.
District Office Chief Facilities Manager Ray Pyle reiterated Huddleston’s comments.
“They will be installed at the entrances to the campuses so that we can capture all the cars coming in and out. They will also be installed at the exterior entrances to child development sectors.” Pyle jokingly added, “cars and kids.”
Pyle also gave more details on how the cameras will work.
“They will be recording cameras, they’ll be cameras that feed to a video recorder and the recorders will just store the information and then if there is an incident, the police can go back and review the footage and see if there’s any evidence or clues from that footage.” Pyle continued with, “It will go straight into the video recording device; the police may have some ability to monitor them in real time but we’re not going to set them up so they are monitoring everything in real time.”
With the college opening in 1974, why is it that LMC is just now getting security cameras?
“We now have the money to get them,” said Pyle.
While the idea of new security cameras in the parking lots and common areas seems like a good plan, instructional assistant Eric Sanchez brought up a few concerns.
“Will the new equipment will have funding support, the new policy can have support to ensure cameras are in operation and recording, and will the college can provide file retrieval support within 24 hours of the request?” asked Sanchez.
Sanchez’s last concern is important seeing how the few cameras that LMC already has operating.
“Our current cameras in Graphics and Journalism record to a server and are not monitored by Police Services, if an incident occurs, Police Service must have a request tied to a police report, police services then request IT to get access to the file,” said Sanchez.
Regardless of how the security cameras will operate, students at LMC will receive some peace of mind knowing that their cars are being monitored.