Video Security Can Help Deter Future Criminal Activity on School Grounds

I do not know the details of the on Sept. 6. What I do know, as someone who formally had the responsibility of providing a safe and nurturing environment for students to learn, is that preventative measures are important.

The same concept applies in vehicle break-ins and home burglaries.  The simple appearance of security is enough to deter most perpetrators.  Why bother risking detection when the house next door is free and clear?

It is for this reason that a simple Google search for fake security cameras returns more than 3,000,000 results.  

Even better than fake video security cameras are real ones.  For example, I worked for several years in the local gaming industry as a network administrator and systems analyst.  One of my primary responsibilities was to ensure the stability of the surveillance department’s equipment.  I can assure you, not a single one of their security cameras were fake, and each and every camera was linked to one of dozens of recording devices that captured every micro-bit of visual and audio data that occurred on the casino floor.

Mehlville had a less robust, but similar plan for their security system.  As a matter of fact, every building on the interior and exterior would have been under full video surveillance.

Would the passage of Proposition C have prevented the attack on Sept. 6? The only honest answer is that we will never really know (because of the deterrents that such systems provide). However, knowing that attacks like this are possible, are we not being wholly irresponsible in our duty to provide a safe and nurturing environment for the children of our community to learn?

Yes. Proposition C failed and it is ancient history in the realm of politics and a 24-hour news cycle, but the plan still survives.  It’s time to buck up Mehlville before someone (or many someones) fall victim to what is still today a tragedy not prevented.

At this point in time, we are the like the Sept. 10 world, who still had the option to require closed and locked steel reinforced doors in airplane cockpits.  For more than 30 years, many lobbied congress to require them, but the anti-regulation agents and airline lobbyists always won out in the end.

Ultimately, we all lost.  

I realize at this point that the Mehlville community has the Tea Party to contend with, but we should not let them stand in our way.  It’s not too late to act, and the time to act is now.