The CBS affiliate in San Francisco, KPIX-TV 5, recently did an investigative story on the brutal beating of a high school student at the Jesse Bethel High School in Vallejo, crediting the school’s exacqVision video surveillance system with identifying the attackers. They contrasted this to the lack of video security at Richmond High School, one of four high schools in the West Contra Costa Unified School District and considered one of the most dangerous in the Bay Area.
The interviewed Vallejo’s assistant superintendent Mel Jordan about the exacqVision VMS security system that had been installed throughout the school district:
Video from Jesse Bethel High School’s surveillance cameras pointed the way for Vallejo police to find, and identify the suspects in the brutal beating of a student last week. The district’s assistant superintendent Mel Jordan said the video is high quality, and everything seen by the cameras is recorded. "This system is a very positive system," he said.
Even more impressive is how the Vallejo schools paid for the cameras. The district stopped paying $40,000 a month for private security guards who Jordan said didn’t deter vandals. "We weren’t hitting the mark. We were looking at somewhere in the neighborhood of $200,000 and $300,000 of vandalism," Jordan said.
Instead the district redirected the money toward buying the new surveillance system. Jordan said "It’s worth every dollar and more."
Just this month, those cameras caught vandals spray painting graffiti on a wall at Hogan High.
What we were able to do is go back in time and look at that then, then pull it off of there and then transmit it to the police officer," Jordan said.
