A new security camera was recently installed outside of Cokesbury Court Apartments.
The camera faces inward toward the gate at the front entrance of the apartment complex.
The camera was installed Jan. 17 and is pointed to capture license plates of vehicles entering the facility, said Liz Richardson, associate director for housing and residence life.
“Anytime we have a better idea of who is coming in, when we can capture a specific license plate, I think that can be helpful,” she said.
Richardson said there was no specific budget set aside for the continued maintenance of the camera, but it will be maintained like the other cameras in Cokesbury.
“We can see if they’re not working, and so then we just address them if we think that they’re getting too old or something like that, but all of our cameras in Cokesbury are only a few years old. I don’t believe that we’ve had a ton of issues with any of the cameras here,” she said.
Jordan Tarter, English senior and Student Government Association president, said she planned this addition since before she was elected.
“We’ve had some pretty unfortunate events at Cokes, like break-ins and kidnap attempts, and all we have is like, ‘a black truck drove in,’ and just, you know, basic apartment crimes in the area, and seeing people’s license plates would help so much,” Tarter said.
Tarter said she began working with officials from the Office of Housing and Residence Life and the OCU Police Department before last summer to discuss adding more safety measures to the apartment complex.
The funds for the new camera came from SGA’s summer budget, but delays in finding and selecting a camera led to the money returning to the student government’s reserves, Tarter said. Once housing officials chose a camera, Tarter submitted a request to move the money from the reserve fund.
The reserve committee determined that it was a viable action, and the decision went to Student Senate, where it was passed. The camera chosen cost more than expected, so housing officials paid for the excess cost.
The camera cost about $3,026, according to an invoice from Convergint Technologies.
Tarter said that SGA paid about $2,144 of the cost.
“Once they were ready, I had to put in a reserve fund request to get that money back out, and I think it was agreed upon because this feels like SGA’s contribution to the campus. We really want to be part of the community and be a part of what’s keeping everyone safe, even though it’s not our job or listed anywhere in the Constitution,” she said.
Tarter said SGA members view their contribution as a means to promote positive relationships.
“Everyone saw it as a really good way to keep the relationship between the student body and the administration, establish that cooperation and trust, showing them that we wanted to take the initiative as well,” she said.
Tarter said OCUPD has access to the footage and can review it in case of an incident.
“I think it’ll be helpful. Hopefully we don’t have unfortunate incidences at Cokes anymore, but, should something happen, I think this will contribute a lot,” she said.
Though they were not directly informed of it, students in Cokesbury have noticed the camera.
Cozy Cozart, acting sophomore and Cokesbury resident, said she was one of these students.
“I guess it’s a good thing, with Cokes’s history of people not always being super safe here, so if there’s a way to monitor that in an emergency situation, that could be beneficial,” she said.
Stephen Jackson, film production sophomore and Cokesbury resident, also said he saw the camera without hearing about it, but he felt safer that there was a record of vehicles entering and leaving.
“I think it’ll be useful if something does happen, somebody comes into the complex who’s not supposed to be here. They’ll have a record of who it was, and they can identify them,” he said.
Leave a Reply