Council to Approve Fake Security for Schools - $5.8 Million

On Tuesday, July 16th at 1:30 PM the Montgomery County Council will hold a public hearing and then immediately vote to approve the expenditure of $5,860,000 for what is being called "school security."

Will this expenditure actually do anything to keep students safe during the school day?  The vast majority of these funds will go to an outside vendor for interior school cameras that will NOT BE MONITORED.  So the answer is no, these cameras do nothing to keep students safe in real time. These cameras are only used as evidence of crimes after the fact and bear no relationship to the real time safety of students.

The Montgomery County Council's Education Committee already discussed this funding request and unanimously approved it.  Listen to the discussion for yourself and hear MCPS' Robert Hellmuth, Director of School Security, say

  "The cameras are really never monitored."

Remember, Mr. Hellmuth puts cameras in schools so there will be less security staff!