Sources indicate that over the last two years MCPS has purchased new IP security cameras to replace the security cameras that were purchased in 1999. But how many new IP security cameras have been purchased over the last two years? Board of Education minutes are silent on this question. For the last two years the Board of Education President has been Nancy Navarro.
Only press releases from vendors and security news services give a hint. The purchase was not documented in Board minutes and no contract was signed for this multi-million dollar procurement. Have 578, 1,900, 3000 or 3,775 IP security cameras been purchased by the Board of Education for installation in MCPS this year?
Here are some clues:
This press release from a Security Conference says that MCPS "expects to have more than 3,000 digital cameras installed in the school district by the end of the year and a total of 12,000 to 13,000 cameras by the end of the initiative."
This press release says that MCPS "middle schools, which on average are deploying 50 IQeye cameras." There are 35 MCPS middle schools. 50 X 38 would mean that 1,900 IQeye security cameras are already in MCPS middle schools alone.
This press release says that MCPS high schools are getting "about 70-80 cameras" and middle schools are getting "about 50 IQeye megapixel cameras per school." There are 25 high schools in MCPS. 25 x 75 would be 1,875 security cameras at the high schools. Adding the high school cameras to the middle school cameras would put the number of security cameras being installed in MCPS schools this year at about 3,775.
This March 19, 2009, web conference says that MCPS has "578 IP security cameras installed and hope to have 6,000 installed by the end of the project."
You be the detective and investigate how many new IP security cameras MCPS has installed, and has on order. Post your finding in the comment section to this blog article. Who knows, you may solve the mystery!
Well, in listening to the "security webcast" the woman who claimed to have interviewed Bob Hellmuth extensively over the last couple of months stated that MCPS was in the second year of a 6 year project, and that MCPS had 578 cameras....and that they hope to have SIX THOUSAND of them by the end of the project.
ReplyDeleteShe further stated that the reason MCPS was upgrading the cameras was because there was an incident of gunshot in the halls where it took "quite a long time" to identify the perpetrator.
??? What is she talking about? I remember hearing about an incident at Einstein involving a gun going off in the bathroom. Is there another incident "in the halls" that parents don't know about? or did she misspeak?