This is a case where we absolutely make the perfect the enemy of the good. Wait until you try to install such a system. You’ll get questions about malefactors hijacking the wifi signal so it has to be hardwired. Then you’ll get questions about uninterruptible power supplies for the cameras. Then you’ll have to have everything shielded in case something happens during a Carrington event. By the time they’re through with the scope it’ll run better than $20,000.
No shit, a few years ago I was trying to get a camera in place to monitor a drum washer during startups and you wouldn’t believe the prices I was quoted. I remember using the phrase “Every middle schooler in North America is sending pictures of his or her junk around the world using a twenty dollar webcam, and you’re quoting me the price of a mid-range automobile to send a signal less than 100 yards.”
From the point of view of the people installing the equipment there’s no downside to over-engineering, and a huge downside to under-engineering. For a system like this, what percentage of downtime is tolerable? In engineering if you make a cost saving decision that results in a disaster you’ll face loss of license, criminal and civil penalties, and sleepless nights for the rest of your life; but if your cost savings idea doesn’t result in a disaster you’ll get a certificate of appreciation in a handsome plastic frame.
I absolutely get what you’re saying. The New York Subway system had an incident that should have been covered by cameras but 3 of them were down. But at $20 a camera you can have a trunk-load of spares to replace them in 5 minutes. I can’t address the security hacking aspect of it but it doesn’t sound like a million dollar venture, It might be something so stupid simple as a camera system that’s turned off until needed so it can’t be hacked.
They had the shooter isolated to one room that they couldn’t breach in a timely manner. If there were kids alive in the room and they tried to smash their way in then it’s likely they would have been shot.
Maybe they’re expected to be locksmiths and that could be a valid point to make. But we know they were inside the building without the ability to open the door with a key.
what is it that you think they could have done better with using the assets they had on hand?
They KNEW that kids were alive in the room because they could hear them being slaughtered and begging for help. Why is standing around listening to it better than risking attempting to force their way in the door when the results were obviously the same. Murdered kids.
Send a couple of cops to walk around the building and look into windows. If they were scared to poke their heads up, they could hold their cell phones up and take pics or videos. If none of them had phones that could take pics, they could yank the side mirrors off vehicles (the parents’ vehicles, not cop cars of course) and hold the mirrors up to the windows to look in.
There were a whole lot more they could have done than stand around listening to the kids being murdered.
As to cameras, I have some relevant experience. While I was Prez of my mid-rise 150 unit condo complex we looked into having security cameras installed around our grounds.
Because we are regulated as a commercial building, everything has to be done to the building codes, using professional rated equipment and professional installation. Some stuff can be wireless, but not everything. etc.
Yes, one can buy some Wi-Fi cameras on Amazon for $20. Our distributed 15-camera system was quoted between $60K and $120K depending on camera capability, power supply redundancy, etc. The overall footprint of my buildings is about the same as a typical elementary school and parking lot, not including the typically much larger school playground.
15 cameras would be a drop in a bucket of a modern elementary school with 25 or 30 classrooms, umpteen corridors, offices, etc. To actually know what’s going on in a room you really need 2 cameras per room. etc.
If surveillance cameras were already or will become commonplace in classrooms we can safely assume they’d be one of the first things the bad guy(s) shot up after they finished with the adult(s) in the room. Maybe not in every active shooter event, but certainly in most of them.
Here is an article on the Uvalde police budget and how is not unusual in similar communities. I’m sure it only covers the basic costs of giving people traffic tickets and dealing with small time crime. It’s certainly not enough to maintain a police force that is properly trained in school shootings. I think that would only be possible in large city police forces that already maintain emergency forces ready to deal with such matters. The Uvalde police department named some people to their SWAT team and took a picture of them they could put on their website and the individuals post on Facebook or what is the thing these days, as if that’s going to stop crimes.
I think you forgot to include the link to the article on the Uvalde police budget.
And, by the way, the Uvalde municipal police department is different from the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District police department. (And I still think it’s weird for school districts to have their own police departments.)
Who cares about their budget? They told everyone, and are still saying that every officer in the district, from the lowliest rookie to the highest brass has gone thru active shooter training. They posted pictures of their SWAT unit, which doesn’t exist. The police themselves aren’t blaming budget issues, they are blaming the officer in charge who didn’t follow the training and protocol. Who at this point is probably lawyered up and not even talking to his own department. Or would be if he was smart.
I’m simply discussing police budgets and normal police activities. As far as what the police say, they lie, don’t you know that? All the way up to the governor of Texas they are covering their asses. Their so called solution of some yearly training which obviously doesn’t work is no better than any of their other solutions. You can’t stop these shootings with more money in the police dept. budget, at best you’ll stop the perpetrator before he as many children as this one did.
Virtually any level of skepticism is appropriate with this story.
So far, I’ve put more stock into “statements against penal interest” (the term being used colloquially) than in the self-aggrandizing back-slapping sort so much more commonly issued.
I would think they’d have a Knox box available. For those of you who have never heard of one, these are little boxes, very often located on the side of a building, that has keys the keys and other items necessary to access the building. You might have seen one before without ever really noticing it. The idea is that the authorities can show up, and they’ll have the ability to open the Knox box and access the building so they can save lives.
Edit: I see I was beaten to the punch regarding Knox boxes.
Why? It has nothing to do with this. The department is not saying anything about a budget shortfall having an impact on their training budget. As a matter of fact it’s been reported that one of the departments involved had just held a live shooter drill in the past few weeks.
I’m not sure how federal agents would have jurisdiction in a local situation. As far as I know, shooting a bunch of kids isn’t a federal crime. Even the FBI has said that they are there in a helping situation, including emotional guidance counseling. They are not in charge of any of the investigation part of the crime, just offering advice and help wherever they are asked for it.
Did you catch the part about the police lying? They probably waste a huge portion of that budget. I think they only wasted a small percentage on ineffective training for mass killings of any variety. They are incompetent starting at the top, and incompetent people at the top hire incompetent people themselves and you can follow that down the line.