STOCKTON, Calif. — Behind the doors of a historic building in downtown Stockton is where people work every day to keep nearly 40,000 Stockton Unified students and staff safe.
"Our officers are out every day patrolling our school sites," said Myra Franco, Chief of Stockton Unified School District's Department of Public Safety. "But obviously based on the amount of locations, we can't be everywhere all at once."
Officers can't be everywhere, but dispatchers in the historic downtown building can be by pulling up security cameras to get an immediate view of the situation at any of the district's 55 school sites — but only when the camera system works.
"With technology, the way that it grows and continues to evolve, we were becoming outdated," said Franco.
For some school sites, that will soon be a problem of the past. The Stockton Unified Board of Trustees voted this week to purchase $9.7 million in new cameras at 15 schools.
“Safety is a priority in the Stockton Unified School District. We have been working on developing programs and enhancing features at all our school sites," said Superintendent Michelle Rodriguez. "We are pleased SUSD School Board approved funds for new cameras. The new cameras are another step in increasing safety measures for our students, teachers and staff."
Both Franco and the district's Director of School Safety, Marcus Omlin, say they're excited to work with new features offered by the state-of-the-art system.
"The old and outdated cameras — some of them — our dispatch center is not even able to capture some of the campuses," said Omlin."What this is going to allow for is better resolution, more coverage for security purposes."
The new AI-powered cameras will be able to track figures, zoom in on small details like license plates, give officials a 360-degree view and upload video to a cloud. District officials plan to eventually integrate the cameras into other safety elements such as school check-in systems.
"I was extremely excited, it was a long time coming," said Franco. "It just gives us those tools to have a more efficient response and provides the evidence too."
The new cameras will be going to: Cesar Chavez High School, Bush Elementary School, Franklin High School, Henry Elemnraty School, Fillmore Elementary School, Hong Kingston Elementary School, Stagg High School, The Weber Institute, Jane Frederick High School, Fremont-Lopez Elementary School, Edison High School, San Joaquin Elementary School, Marshall Elementary School, Tayor Leadership Academy and Taft/ Montessori Specialty School.
The new tools are expected to be installed in the coming months after district officials finish filling orders. The district hopes to add the new cameras to all school sites after the first ones are installed.
"We're looking at safety as a while and equity throughout the entire district," said Franco. "We're looking at pieces to not just check marks right now, but to create a safety system that is sustainable over time, even meeting the challenges as technology evolves."
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