SCAD Security gets personal and high-tech
SCAD Security is now located at 350 Bull Street.
Photo by Katherine Rountree
If you live in a residence hall—or if you’ve gone into one recently—you’ve probably already noticed one of the many changes in security procedures this quarter: SCAD Security guards have to touch your IDs.
According to John Buckovich, SCAD’s director of security, this “Hard Card” procedure should help reduce the chances of someone slipping into a building without an ID, or with a fake ID. It is the officers’ jobs to not only touch the ID but to also look at the picture and make sure it matches the face of its carrier.
Hard Card is in place at all the residence halls, the Student Center and the Atlanta campus, among other locations. Even though the procedure requires every student to stop briefly before entering buildings, fourth year illustration student Jessica Zuwala, an Oglethorpe House resident from Chicago, said she doesn’t mind.
“I think it’s good because I know a lot of circumstances where people who don’t go to SCAD have just shown something that’s not a SCAD ID and just gotten into different places,” she said. “I think it definitely is good for that.”
The security officers support the change, too.
“This is for the safety of the students and even me, because I’m the first one they see,” said Olean Johnson, an officer at Oglethorpe House. “If I’m the first one they see and I don’t check their IDs, you don’t know if it’ll be fake and they won’t be a student, they could come in here and do anything.”
Hard Card is only the most noticeable of SCAD Security’s changes this quarter. For one, we shouldn’t call it SCAD Security – it’s now the SCAD Department of Public Safety. Buckovich said the name change represents a change in mindset for the department.
“It’s a much broader approach,” he said. “We’re looking at everything from emergency management to fire prevention to hurricanes, planning for evacuations … Really trying to train our officers to be more proactive in crime prevention. So that’s one reason we changed our name. It’s not just SCAD Security. It’s a much larger, more proactive approach to how we keep the campus safe.”
One of the first big steps in accomplishing this was moving into a new building: 350 Bull Street, across from their previous location. According to Buckovich they just needed more space for the technology upgrades and program expansion he had in mind.
The main new feature here is a command center for monitoring the hundreds of new cameras that are now filming 24 hours a day. SCAD has 550 cameras now and is installing more. In comparison the city of Savannah only has 168 security cameras.
“We’re really trying to use technology as a force multiplier,” Buckovich explained. “It’s to enhance how we do security.”
The command center is a room with eight monitors’ worth of live security video. Four more wall monitors and another computer station will be added this week. The locations of the video feeds monitored vary, depending on the time of day, which buildings are open and what’s going on that day. Residence halls usually aren’t watched during the day because on-site officers can take care of that, but they are watched at night when most other buildings are closed.
There are two technicians watching the screens at all times, and already the video feeds have helped security officers catch a number of bike thieves this past spring. Good results, but Buckovich didn’t push for this change because of any particular influx of crime.
“Before, the cameras were more for forensics,” he said. “In other words, they were only used if something happened, not in a proactive manner. In the last couple years, there really has been the mindset to be more proactive. Not because things are any worse. Not because crime’s worse, but because colleges need to be more proactive.”
The new building also has a conference room, where security officers and administration can gather in times of major incidents or emergency situations and coordinate actions.
On a day-to-day basis, security officers will be more visible and accountable on-campus. Buckovich has added additional patrol officers between the hours of 8 p.m. and 4 a.m., called the “Campus Impact Team.” These officers would be on bikes, in cars and even traveling from building to building on foot.
Buckovich has also implemented “D3” technology, which requires each officer to scan their smartphones at certain locations inside SCAD buildings. This ensures that officers actually go into the buildings and make sure everything is in order.
“It helps me to know that they didn’t just walk into the building, look around, turn around and walk out,” Buckovich explained. “They have to actually walk through the building, they have to engage people.”
He hopes this will improve the efficiency and responsibility of his officers.
It’s a lot of change to take in. And if Buckovich has his way, this is only the beginning. For now, he encourages students to email him at security@scad.edu if they have questions, see something worrisome or if they have a bad interaction with an officer.
And please, work with the officers as they implement new strategies and make themselves more present. Safety is the most important thing.
