By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
The Barton Community College Board of Trustees were presented information about the college’s surveillance camera upgrade at Tuesday’s meeting. Before the upgrade, the college had 280 cameras with 313 views that kept track of the administration building, fine arts building, baseball press box, maintenance buildings, daycare, dorm rooms and many other locations around campus.
Barton’s Chief Information Officer Renee Demel said the upgrades will include a panoramic view of the college.
"We'll have improved resolution," said Demel. "We'll be able to do facial and vehicle recognition, and that's a new feature. We'll be able to zoom in better."
The upgrade will include less cameras but increased views around campus. The project includes 261 cameras with 331 views.
Lucas Stoelting, Director of Campus Safety, said video recordings around the college come with a very restricted access to view them.
"FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) is getting a little more strict," said Stoelting. "I've discussed this with the Sheriff's Office. When you record, it's now student records. Once they're students records, it's covered by FERPA. Even the Sheriff's Office needs to get a subpoena or a court order to view them."
Along with being a vandalism deterrent, surveillance video assists with shipping and receiving confirmation and a reduced risk of liability.