Campus surveillance gets upgrade

New camera system promises sharper vision at night, expandability; university officials say new system is worth it

By Adrian Rodriguez

Electricians on campus are installing fiber-optic wiring underground this week and removing the old surveillance camera system, which officials said was outdated and in some cases inoperable.

Mark Landucci, an electrician from Integrated Electronics who is helping rewire the campus, said the company expects to finish installing the smaller, faster surveillance cameras on campus by the end of next week.

Five of 24 cameras on campus were not functioning at the beginning of the semester, said Gary Beddingfield, campus parking and transportation administrator.

Although it is relatively easy to swap cameras from one location to another—some areas of campus have multiple cameras—he said the university had been looking to replace the old system for two years, and the loss of those cameras pushed the project to the top of the list.

“ The status of the existing system is that our stockpile of parts went away,” Beddingfield added.

The company that sold the university that system, C/COR, went out of business soon after the purchase, Beddingfield said.

But even though the campus had little choice to make a switch, he said the cost of the camera-conversion project—about $500,000 that was generated by parking fees, tickets and passes—will ultimately be worth it.

The new camera system was purchased through Pelco, a company Beddingfield said was chosen because of its state-of-the-art technology and its location—it’s a nationally sold product located in Fresno.

Beddingfield also said Pelco’s cameras are also being used in the almost-complete Save Mart Center, which he said might even be linked to the campus police’s camera system. The new campus crime lab also uses Pelco’s cameras, he said.

The 26 cameras in place now are in locations near Shaw Avenue, the Free Speech Area and most parking lots on campus. They are operated in the university police department office by Mary Quesada, a parking officer assigned to the camera system.

Beddingfield said the new system is expandable, which means more cameras may be installed in other locations in the future. Two new cameras were installed recently near the Thomas Administration building and behind the Joyal Administration building, he said.

Another benefit of the new system will be that the cameras will have infrared lenses, which help in viewing campus events at night, he said.

Quesada, who has been watching the campus through television sets for more than six years, said the biggest improvement over the old system is the method she will use to review the videos.

“ I’m excited. I’ve been excited for the past two years,” Quesada said. “It’ll have DVD instead of tape, and officers will have a form they can fill out and I can find the tape they’re looking for.”

She said under the C/COR system it would take much longer to find a taped event when an officer wanted it reviewed.

“ It literally could take a week to review the tapes, but with DVD, you can eliminate areas [automatically],” she said.