VICIOUS fights, a proliferation of weapons, and illicit activities amongst students have led to a decision to equip six schools across the island with closed-circuit television (CCTV) surveillance systems, for starters, with talks of linking them to the national camera surveillance programme, JamaicaEye.

According to director of the Safety and Security in Schools Unit Richard Troupe, the decision to put extra eyes on the grounds of Grange Hill High School in Westmoreland, Hopewell High School in Hanover, Oracabessa High School in St Mary, Papine High School in St Andrew, Denham Town High School in Kingston, and Eltham High School in St Catherine was informed by the education ministry’s ongoing audit of CCTV surveillance systems in schools as well as its critical incident investigations.

He said the “frequency” with which officials have been “called to treat with particular matters, such as fights, a proliferation of weapons, breaches in the perimeter fencing, and smoking and gambling in some spaces” had triggered the approaches.

In addition, Troupe said “the vulnerability of the spaces because of where they are located and challenges in the physical environment, the set-up of the schools, and the many blind spots that exist and the need for consistent monitoring” were additional push factors.

“The need is great. There are many vulnerable spots so those six schools were shortlisted,” Troupe told the Jamaica Observer, adding that the ministry is also planning to mete out the same treatment to other schools with similar flaws.

“The commitment of the ministry is to ensure that we are providing this level of support to a set number of schools each year. If we are able to find additional resources within our budget for other schools to benefit in this fiscal year, we will also consider that because technology really helps,” he said.

In the meantime, the Safety and Security in Schools Unit head told the Observer that efforts are under way to ensure that the stock of metal detectors in high schools are in good working order.

“Currently, all high schools have been given metal detectors. We are in the process, near completion, of an audit to determine if these detectors are working. We have some in inventory that we are releasing to schools that indicated that their detectors are defective. The principle is that each school must have at least two hand-held detectors. For walk-through metal detectors we are also doing an audit because some might need repairs. That audit is near completion and it is to ensure that the company that we procured them from will be sent to the schools to do the repairs at our cost,” he said.

Figures for the cost of the audit were not immediately available.

Meanwhile, Troupe said the latest efforts complement the long-held partnership with the Community Safety and Security Branch of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, which has been affected because of manpower shortages.

“There were about 176 school resource officers that would have been supporting our system. Recently it was indicated that an additional 50 people were in training. Unfortunately, because of the issue with boots on the ground not being enough, the traditional approach of having two officers working at a school for the entire day is not the option being pursued now. So what we have now is the officers are assigned to schools but they provide satellite services. So the deans or principals have their contact and will call them if required,” Troupe explained.