by David Reagan
Staff writer
“I wouldn’t be afraid to say that we’re the most technically developed university of our size,” said SE Police Captain and Assistant Director Stacy Ballew. This semester the SE Department of Campus Police and Safety has acquired several new technologies including different types of wireless security systems, through a federal grant from the Department of Justice.
Jon Clouse, director of campus safety and police, echoed Ballew’s sentiment: “I think we’re way ahead of the curve to be honest. I really do. Even OU and OSU don’t have the LYNX system.”
According to Clouse, LYNX is a security company specializing in mass emergency notification, a state of the art technology created independent of the school to ensure faster communication between the public and safety officials.
In the most recent and visible of changes included in the LYNX system, the SE Department of Campus Police and Safety unearthed a new construction project — white poles with security push-buttons are now seen jutting out of the ground in 15 locations, dotting the campus grounds.
These security push-buttons are now operational and were successfully tested on Tuesday, Feb 7.
The push buttons are not the only change on campus, but rather part of a bigger one. “It’s a whole system (LYNX). I’ve been wanting to get this implemented for years,” Clouse said. “We never had the money.”
Clouse said he had been researching the technology and working to get this upgrade, already knowing it was a good system.
He continued, “Then with the grant we were finally able to do it. It’s got a lot of other features (other than the call buttons), that’s just one of them. It interconnects a lot of different stuff.”
This $270,000 grant, U.S. Department of Justice Cops Technology Grant 2010ckwx0270, originally awarded in October 2010, was specifically for “cops technology” uses and could not be allocated elsewhere. Ballew said that the grant has a three year limit in which it must be used, which is why all the purchases were not immediate.
The system connects the red push buttons, the silent alarms in classrooms and offices, the video cameras, the digital ticketing devices, the police car computers, the police radios and the office computers.
“We’re the only one in the state of Oklahoma that has that (technology). That’s pretty neat,” Clouse said.
When a student feels threatened or scared and pushes the emergency button, it will pop up on campus police office computers. It also comes across on the radios, in case someone is not in the office. The officer on patrol receives the notification with a couple seconds delay via the wireless system.
To operate the call box, you lift the lid. An audible ringing will sound, but this is not the alarm. The red button must be pushed.
The response time is three minutes at the most, but Ballew noted, “Very rarely will it even take that long.” Although there is no intercom system on the device, he said, “the student can rest assured the officer is on his way.”
There have been 15 LYNX security posts installed at the school, which includes one at the airport as well.
Ballew met with the Student Government Association to determine where the students thought the best spots on campus would be to place the buttons.
According to Clouse, it is a violation of state law to press the button for anything other than emergency, and anyone who abuses the system will be prosecuted.
To clarify what constitutes an emergency, Clouse said, “If they feel the need like they need the police, feel free to push the button.”
In addition to the heightened security, many other changes have taken place. The instructors, faculty, staff, student workers and other SE employees can push buttons to trigger silent alarms.
There are now multiple locations within every classroom to subtly press one, without the assailant knowing. If there is a camera in the room, SE police can automatically link into it with a live feed.
“The faculty and the students should feel a lot safer,” Clouse said. “The ability to contact us has gone up tremendously, especially with all the different offices being able to contact us. No problem — they don’t have to pick up the phone. They don’t have to say a word.”
Clouse added that one of the major problems faced by Department of Campus Police and Public Safety has been the hesitance for people to report a crime due to its awkwardness.
According to Clouse, situations go unaddressed because people think, “maybe it’s not enough and we don’t want to bother them.”
This is a misconception Clouse said he seeks to eliminate and also the reason why he instituted the online reporting forms and the anonymous call line for community use.
He added, “I feel the more open we can be, it makes it easier for the students to report things. The more communication we have going back and forth the safer the campus is. It takes everybody… the more information we get, and the more we’re gonna catch things before it happens… rather than after it happens.”
Although the LYNX system is not related to the Office of Violence Prevention, Clouse expressed interest for the cooperation of the two departments working together in the future on this project.
He defined the current state of overall cooperation with the campus as “community policing,” where the entire public helps catch things before they happen, not just one office.
Also, two new thermal imaging cameras were acquired with the grant. These devices pick up heat and can tell which vehicles just came in the parking lot or if someone is hiding in the bushes.
Vehicle ticketing has also changed from print to digital this semester.
According to Clouse, this digital change was necessary because “the ticket writer can do it a lot quicker. The reason we have the bar code now on the sticker, it scans it and fills everything in so we don’t get errors….also the officers take a picture of each parking violation, which has been very helpful when people come in and argued ‘I wasn’t on the line’ or ‘I wasn’t over here.’ We just go to the computer and pop up that photo.”
This practice of taking pictures is now customary for every violation, and it keeps track of the ticket history for the campus police, giving them an idea of where the hot spots are.
Clouse said, “It gives us a lot of control, or a lot of information, that we didn’t have before. It’s been very useful.”
New computers in the police cars have also been installed, along with “mobile cop” software, which keeps them linked in with city and statewide police.
A new digital fingerprint system has also acquired.
In addition to serious traffic stops which would require its use, Ballew noted, “They do the fingerprints for the education, nursing, and aviation students… to do a job licensed through the state, they require you to be fingerprinted… we don’t charge for that.”
Clouse added, “It saves them from having to go down to the jail and do it, who charges them.”
The grant money was also used to upgrade police radios, which are now digital with a wireless receiver, reaching much farther than they could before.
A new police car was the only item not covered by the grant, a 2011 Chevrolet Tahoe. It was approved by Ross Walkup, vice president of business affairs. The reason for this purchase, according to Ballew, was “Our other car was getting to a point where we had to, because of the miles, wear and tear, starting to have a lot of repairs and wasn’t dependable.”
Clouse added, “We tried, but we couldn’t find any grants.”
Overall, with this array of new technology, Ballew said, “Day to day on the job…it has made it easier….and made us better prepared. It’s totally improved our efficiency up here.”
Clouse said, “It gives us that ability to respond in a hurry.”
There are currently no new projects for the safety or police departments underway, and according to Ballew, “there will be none for a while.”