St. Dominic High School made headlines as the first school in the St. Charles County area to adopt a surveillance system that law enforcement can access during an emergency.

To make this security dream a reality, St. Dominic had to first gather funds and decide on what would be best for the school. That’s where a non profit security grant came in, paying for $150,000 of the $275,000 dollar cameras.

The next step to putting in these new security cameras in place was deciding when to put them in place. Eventually it was decided to be done during the summer months, along with the other expansions and additions to St. Dominic’s campus.

“When our campus expanded, we knew we needed additional cameras, and our previous cameras were pretty old, so we decided to redo everything, and in redoing everything, we decided to go to this new system that we have, because we thought it was the best thing we could do for safety for our students,” President Mr. Jim Welby said.

After deciding to add these cameras into St. Dominic it was debated where the new cameras would be most effective if a safety issue arose. Where to place these cameras is a key detail that can help increase the productivity of the police by allowing them to access the situation and place men where they need to be.

“We had conversations with Genitec and did a lot of just monitoring and mapping of the school as to where to make sure every inch of the school was monitored, and so there were a lot of behind the scenes things happening to make sure that we were up and running the right way,” Dean of Students Mrs. Melissa Liszewski said.

Without these cameras law enforcement often has to rely on the information the 911 dispatchers disclose and make an educated guess in where exactly the threat is in the building. However with this new state of the art system the police have access in case of an emergency. Thus making St. Dominic safer for the students and the officers if a problematic situation arises.

This security system is extremely important and helpful for students and law enforcement safety. Thus sure to inspire other schools and institutions to adopt this method of security to better safety for the overall community.