TUPELO, Miss. — The Tupelo Public School District (TPSD) can tap into live video surveillance feeds at each of its 13 school campuses with the click of a mouse.
Throw in the 460 security cameras installed across the school district and that’s a pretty substantial school security solution. But it’s all worth it to TPSD Security Director Terry Hatch.
“Teachers really feel wonderful, it’s all about safety,” Hatch said in a WCBI report. “If you don’t feel safe, you’re not going to teach. If you don’t feel safe, you’re not going to learn.”
Two school security officers monitor the feeds at a time, monitoring the approximate 7,000 people that are on TPSD campuses on an average day.
“The importance of this is having more eyes basically in blind sports our guys cannot be around,” Hatch said. “We also have security, they can patrol each day, but they can’t be each place.”
The video surveillance system and the command center that goes with it cost around $650,000. It was funded through the district’s $44 million bond program, according to the report.
