For Mark Stout, Chief of Police for the Putnam City School District in Warr Acres, Okla., every day is an education in the newest security and surveillance technologies.

With 28 schools and 10 administrative facilities spread across 43 square miles of the Oklahoma City Metroplex area, Stout and his team are continually evaluating the district’s security infrastructure to identify new methods for keeping students, faculty and staff safe.

For the past several years, those efforts have included replacing aging and outdated security cameras with the latest Hanwha Techwin models. As a result, the district is benefitting from a range of new technologies critical for school safety—including artificial intelligence, multi-view and multi-sensor capabilities, discreet form factors, easy deployment, flexible configuration and A/V analytics for effective data-gathering.

The ongoing upgrade has led to a significant improvement in operational performance and efficiency, situational awareness and a noticeable reduction in on-site incidents.

“Our response times are faster, our security procedures are more efficient and we can allocate our resources more appropriately to match the unique needs of each school,” said Stout.

The district’s camera count currently totals about 1,500 Hanwha Techwin cameras, a mixture of P-series AI dome, multi-sensor, panoramic, X-series fisheye and PTZ models. More installations are planned in the future as the district adds new facilities and expands its current venues.

Putnam City Schools has deployed security cameras and access control systems for decades. However, recent rapid growth in the student population, heightened school activity levels and expanded campus footprints made upgrading a critical requirement for effective long-term surveillance.

The district includes elementary schools, middle schools and high schools with a total of approximately 20,000 students and about 3,500 teaching, maintenance and operations staff. Each building varies in terms of age, layout, size, facilities and occupancy, meaning the security systems in place must also vary accordingly to keep pace.

This article originally appeared in the July / August 2022 issue of Campus Security & Life Safety.

• Emergency Preparedness • Health Care Trends Shaping Security & Infection Control • Automate Your Emergency Response • Leveraging Surveillance

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