SEATTLE — Despite investing thousands of dollars in more than 1,400 security cameras, Seattle Public Schools records show weeks, even months of delays in fixing those cameras at schools all over the city.
In one case at Jane Addams Middle School in North Seattle, school officials described cameras as “filming tops of trees, not students. High security problem. Need it fixed ASAP.”
“I was not aware of this,” said Janeen Joshi, who has kids in sixth and eight-grade at the middle school, said.
Records show the request for repair was entered on Sept. 27, 2017, and work was completed Jan. 31, 2018.
“There a lot of things that happen at schools nowadays,” Angel George, who has two children at Jane Addams, said. “They’ve got to have their cameras up and running.”
“It takes that long? Just to call somebody in?” said George. “Because I know my cable company doesn't take that long.”
Scroll down to continue reading
More news from KIRO 7
- Supreme Court challenger leads in poll, runs from camera
- Mayor proposes raising Seattle Center parking rates byt $15/day, $85/month
- Police: Microsoft employees used keycard while stealing $200k in laptops
- Snohomish couple robbed at gunpoint by men claiming to be federal agents
- Do you have an investigative story tip? Send us an email at investigate@kiro7.com
A more recent request from July of 2018 stated that a camera “has not moved from 0157 July 13th. We had burglaries in this site we could not see any cameras from inside or outside of the bldg. since then. Please fix asap.” Officials said cameras at Jane Addams are working now, though it’s unclear when they were fixed.
“I was not aware of this,” Joshi said.
But the problems aren’t just at Jane Addams. A KIRO 7 investigation found delays at schools throughout Seattle, from elementary to middle school to high school.
At Cascadia Elementary in North Seattle, records state it took technicians more than a month to fix a “malfunctioning” camera trained on the playground.
At Rainier Beach High School in South Seattle, a new request on Aug. 22nd, 2018, said seven cameras needed repair because they were "blurry." The school district has not responded to questions about whether those cameras have been fixed.
At Chief Sealth International High School in West Seattle, parents and their teens were surprised that records state it took a month to clear fogged up views from a “substantial number of security cameras.”
Patricia Ruiz’s daughter, Elena, is a junior at Chief Sealth and said she takes her safety seriously.
“If something goes wrong they need to, like, be accountable and fix it as soon as possible,” she said. “It could potentially be a risk if they don’t have enough information about the hallways. Maybe an incident occurred that they didn't even know.”
KIRO 7 began asking Seattle Public Schools for an interview in August. On Aug. 15, a school spokesperson asked for a “full list of questions regarding school surveillance cameras” so that “we can best support you.”
KIRO 7 reporter Linzi Sheldon responded, but did not hear back. She sent a follow-up email on Aug. 19, then Aug. 27, and then again on, on Sept. 9.
It was only on Sept. 30, when she mentioned that she had “spoken to parents at several schools,” that Seattle Public Schools responded. A spokesperson wrote, “At this time, we do not have anybody available to sit down with you for an interview.”
But parents had questions, and so did KIRO 7. So Sheldon signed up to address the school board at its meeting on October 3. Within a few minutes of the news crew arriving on site, SPS suddenly made then-Associate Superintendent of Operations Flip Herndon available.
“Why would cameras not be repaired for several weeks, up to four months?” Sheldon asked.
“So it could be that if it's a newer school, a newer installation, the vendors we have -- they will be the ones repairing those, because usually they're under warranty,” Herndon said. “If there are a series of higher priority work orders that come in, that's what can bump those work orders back a little bit farther.”
“Is four months acceptable?” Sheldon asked him.
“Of course we’d love to go faster than that,” he said.
Herndon said a problem like a door that's not locking or a camera right over the front entrance that's not working can push back other repairs.
“Is four months acceptable?” Sheldon asked.
“Of course we’d love to go faster than that but I don’t think that’s really the norm,” Herndon said. “There may have been a few occasions where that happened, but that’s generally not the practice. We try and get to them within 30 days.”
He said the district has only a few electrical technicians for 105 buildings, and that they are not seeking funding for more technicians because they have other priorities.
“Right now, for instance, we don't even clean our buildings every day,” he said. “We don’t have enough custodians to do that. That's something that we'd rather address first.”
Herndon also revealed that cameras are not considered a proactive tool, but rather used to monitor problems identified as in progress or for investigations later.
“You're saying that SPS does not have staff that are monitoring the cameras at all the schools,” Sheldon said.
“Not strictly just sitting and watching cameras,” he said. “We have administrators in buildings and security specialists at buildings that have access to the cameras.”
Michael Dorn, nationally known school security expert, said that approach is probably true for 90 to 95 percent of school districts. Few, he said, can afford round-the-clock-camera-monitoring.
But Dorn said cameras can still be valuable. He recommends recording a two-minute video for training purposes.
“Use your security cameras, for example, to depict what student supervision should be like on a playground, in a cafeteria morning arrival and afternoon dismissal process,” he said. “Then you use that as a teaching tool.”
He said employees are better at supervising students when they know someone could be watching.
“You will periodically pull your cameras and capture video and activities, playground supervision, for example,” he said. “Then gauge that against what's actually supposed to be happening.”
But for districts dealing with a tight budget, spending more on cameras may not make sense.
“It really depends on the overall situation,” he said. “Before I get into cameras, I want to see what your threat assessment and management process looks like, your suicide prevention, student supervision. Those are the things that have data behind them in reducing death in school more than any technology we have.”
Still, parents said if they can’t be watching their kids, they’d like the technology they’re paying for to actually be working.
“There's a lot of things that happen at schools nowadays,” Angel George said. “They've gotta have their cameras up and running.”
Follow this link to see the repair request from April 27, 2018 through Sept. 25, 2018.
Follow this link to see another list of security camera repairs, updated May 16, 2018.