7 Low-Cost Security Upgrades You Can Implement Now
Here are the improvements one Indiana school district implemented quickly and at little or no expense.
There is no question that equipment and measures such as access control, two-way radio interoperability, building design that incoporates safety and security, staff and officer training, as well as video surveillance can all help to better protect schools, universities and hospitals. Some campus officials, however, might not have the resources or time to make these types of improvements right away.
Fortunately, there are inexpensive solutions that can be implemented almost immediately. For example, the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. in Indiana quickly made the following seven changes in response to site assessments conducted by a consultant:
- Removing names and other identifying information about students and teachers from pictures posted in the schools
- Taking the teachers’ names off of classroom doors
- Taking titles off of reserved parking spaces and using numbers instead
- Staff standing in the center or behind a group of students instead of in front of them to provide active supervision
- Staff spreading out and being visible and alert and wearing yellow safety vests while on playground duty instead of congregating with other staff
- Escorting strangers without visitors’ badges to the office
- Not allowing anyone in a school building without signing in and getting an ID badge
After these improvements were implemented, the district then focused on other upgrades that required more resources, such as NIMS training of teachers and staff, designing school buildings so school offices are at the front of the buildings, installing security cameras and changing/adding locks on campus doors.
Related Articles:
- District’s Attitude About Protection Goes From ‘Ho Hum’ to ‘Gung Ho’
- What 1st Responders Know About Building Design
- How Security Can Pay for Iteself
Photo via Flickr, Alan Cleaver
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About the Author
Robin Hattersley, Editor-in-Chief
Robin has been covering the security and campus law enforcement industries since 1998 and is a specialist in school, university and hospital security, public safety and emergency management, as well as emerging technologies and systems integration. She joined CS in 2005 and has authored award-winning editorial on campus law enforcement and security funding, officer recruitment and retention, access control, IP video, network integration, event management, crime trends, the Clery Act, Title IX compliance, sexual assault, dating abuse, emergency communications, incident management software and more. Robin has been featured on national and local media outlets and was formerly associate editor for the trade publication Security Sales & Integration. She obtained her undergraduate degree in history from California State University, Long Beach.
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