CASE STUDIES: Ramapo College

Growing College Campus Puts New Digital Video System to the Test

When Ramapo College of New Jersey began to transition from a primarily commuter
college to a residential college two years ago, it quickly became clear that their current
video system wasn’t going to cut it.

“We’ve had an ongoing construction program,” says Robert O’Brien, security director of
the college. “Just about every year a new residence hall is coming on line. We’d just
about reached the maximum with our video system. We needed to convert to digital to
move forward.”

In addition, the college had other concerns with their aging video playback equipment.
“The video recorders were older models,” O’Brien says. “The video tapes had to be
constantly recirculated. And we had no way to check to see if the signal was being
recorded until we actually went for playback. Our ability to give something to the police
department that they could use was very limited.”

Need for Evidence

Indeed, the college was hindered by their video tape-based system.
“It was very specialized. Video had to be played back on our system. We were hampered
in our ability to work with the police department or anyone else in terms of
investigations. They would have to come here to watch it and they couldn’t leave with
anything that was tangible.”

On-site investigations were difficult as well. “We’ve had investigations where officers
were having to view over 40 hours of video tape,” O’Brien recounts. “That required them
to be doing just that for that one investigation. It tied up all the equipment and the officer
during that time. And we couldn’t claim an investigation was complete until they’d
watched the entire thing.”

In one instance, expensive monitors were stolen from the computer lab. “Officers had to
watch the entire tape to make sure [the suspects] were the only ones who removed
equipment,” O’Brien says. “It was successful, but there was a great deal of time
dedicated to this.”

A Better Investigative Tool

So when the college decided that a new video system was needed, one of the criteria was
a system that would be a more effective investigative tool.

The choice? A digital video system from Vicon, using their Kollector Elite DVRs.
“Digital gives us a lot more flexibility,” O’Brien says. “Now any investigation we get
involved in, our officer is directed to investigate. He can go back to his work station,
which controls all the digital recorders. He can go to a given period of time and check.
“He can just watch the time in which there is activity. It allows you to skip over viewing
non-activity times in that area. Also, when it comes to playback, it also saves a great deal of time. We can take a snapshot picture off of the digital playback and develop it into a picture that can be handed to the police.”

The college felt that the new technology also warranted a new protocol as well. “This use
is new for us,” O’Brien says. “We had to evolve an investigative protocol in order to fully
utilize it.”

They now develop a single shot into a picture and print it out. “Originally we didn’t plan
for a photo software system or printer,” O’Brien says. “Now we have a software package
that allows the picture to be developed on a photo quality printer. We can freeze frame
the shot and make a copy. That shot becomes the investigative tool. It’s handy for the
police if you have a suspect. And we can record it to a CD to become evidence should it
go to court.”

Recently, the college had a test of the new system.

“We had a complaint that out of one of classrooms, items that individual left -- some
books and a coat -- were missing. He reported it to security. Using the Kollector Elites,
our officer was able to discern an individual who appeared to have gone into the room
and left with items that he hadn’t gone in with. Unfortunately, he had a hat on and was
difficult to identify. We developed snapshot picture and the police began their
investigation. A week later, our officer was able to observe same individual without a hat
and identified the individual. As a result, police questioned him and he confessed.”

Meeting Expectations

The new system more than meets the College’s expectations, O’Brien says.
“It provides absolute reliability,” he says. “With the old system we didn’t know if it was
recording or functioning properly. This system allows you to monitor constantly.
“In addition, digital gives us a lot more flexibility. The playback is a lot easier for officers
to do.”

Perhaps even more important is that the system meets the expectations of the college’s
inhabitants, O’Brien says. “Once you have a video system there is an expectation that you will be able to produce an investigation upon request. Students, their parents, the police, staff on campus all assume that you can provide lead information off of video. There have been occasions [with the old system] when there were problems with the signal and it was not recorded. It’s much better with digital. The reliability is vastly increased.”

The speed of the system is also a big benefit, O’Brien says. “We can handle more
investigations and process them a lot quicker. Time is very important in an investigation.
The quicker you can discover who the likely suspects are, the better your investigation
is.”

The new system not only produces better and quicker investigations, it also allows the
college address more issues.

“When we had an investigation that took 40 hours, something of lesser importance often
had to be put aside,” O’Brien says. “Now we can investigate ‘quality of life’ items as
well. In some cases it’s not something that everybody would expect you would
investigate, but we can resolve issues with people who are living together, especially in
residence halls. Colleges that don’t have a system like this are not able to investigate
anywhere near as much as we can.”

Ultimately, better investigative tools lead to happy results for all. “Students have an
expectation that you will be able to investigate [any issues]. When we are successful, they are very happy. And their parents are very happy. That really makes the parent feel that there is a degree of safety that Ramapo has for their children as opposed to a place that has nothing. It may very well be a factor in whether they choose to come here or not.”