Lawrence Consalvos
Senior VP & General Manager
iXP Corporation
A co-founder of a 100-employee company that is now ten years old discusses operational realities regarding campus emergency preparedness, emergency communications and public safety on campus.
How much might a sizeable campus spend in a year on technology and services related to emergency-readiness?
Budget allocations to public safety and security are set individually by every campus. In addition those outlays appear in both capital and operating budgets. There's no formula industry-wide. There have been no reliable surveys.
What public safety and emergency readiness services should a campus be using?
A public safety and/or security workforce is needed, and it should be working according to a plan that covers the campus and the surrounding community. That plan should also cover emergencies and emergency response.
What are the technology products likely to be used?
There's traditional public safety communications technology like 911, emergency telephony, radio communications, dispatch and records management systems. There's also security technology like alarm systems, access control, call boxes, closed circuit camera systems, emergency lighting, emergency signage, emergency notification systems.
What technology might a savvy campus administrator want to avoid?
College administrators should avoid any technology that does not fit well within the operational plan for policing and securing the campus. The secret sauce involves a good marriage between existing public safety or security personnel and available technology. If it's too complicated for the staff to use, and the campus community to embrace, don't buy it.
What technology might a savvy campus administrator want to become familiar with?
Campus administrators should look for solutions first, products second. For example, tiered emergency solutions send emergency messages out over multiple transmission paths ... sirens, e-mail, outbound auto-dialers, faxes, electronic bulletin boards, electronic billboards, text messages, etc.
What unique success did Johns Hopkins University recently achieve?
They've reduced crime significantly both on campus and around the campus. Their very comprehensive plan includes a virtual perimeter around the campus that uses smart closed circuit tv. It's 'smart' because it uses behavior recognition. As a result JHU's security staff are able to respond to alerts before crimes are committed.
Would that cctv solution have been a success if it had been implemented before the university developed its comprehensive plan?
No. The plan was built by the people who supervise the staff who use the technology. It's an excellent example of that good marriage mentioned earlier.