Cat Gonzales
Lantern Staff
The Butler Community College police force has been making various changes to their office. The revisions began at the end of the fall 2017 semester and should be completed by fall 2018. Current renovations include the interior of the West dorms where the Butler police office is located. Eventually, different security cameras will be installed throughout the El Dorado campus, and an app will be designed to help maintain safety on campus.
“It’s been talked about, the camera project and all that has been talked about for a while,” Chief of Police Jason Kenney said. “The building of the wall and all that something once I became chief, this is what I would do. The wall expanding and giving us more room, giving us the dedicated spaces for things, right now with that squad room up there… it is kind of our everything. Anyone could come and go as they please out there between students and staff. Where now, there is going to be a service area, which will be that hallway by the laundry room to our service desk area to our operation center back to the deputies and chief’s office, where our evidence will be stored.”
Once constructed is complete, visitors will enter a different side of the West dorms nearest to the laundry facilities. Visitors will have to check in upon arriving at the office. Progressing through the check-in area to the squad room, a wall will be dedicated fully to screens that will keep eye on the new security cameras that will be placed on campus. There will be desks under those screens for the officers to work on. The room will also be used to store officers’ vests and other belongings. The interrogation room will be located at the further end of the building, and the chief of police’s office will be attached to one another.
“Expanded to their squad room area are almost doubling it,” Kenney said. “That will give them dedicated spots for evidence hold for the deputy chief if {someone needs to be} interviewed and interrogat{ed}. The other spot, the new area, is going to be all the surveillance stuff…the security camera that we have and kind of like the dispatch center, the hub.”
The new cameras will have a better view of the campus and the parking lots, which will be equipped with new security cameras.
“It is going to more than double the amount of cameras on campus that we have now,” Kenney said. “We also will have cameras in the parking lots and where we can look at the dorm that cover externally.”
With the additional security cameras on campus, a new app will be designed to help with camera safety.
“If there is a tornado, how are we going to deal with it, if there is an active shooter how are we going to deal with it and all that kind of stuff,” Kenney said. “We are breaking that down. The ALICE classes are back up and going, and then we are looking at different technologies for those plans. Do we print the plans out and put them on classrooms or do we use an app, so everyone can get the information?”
With these changes to the Butler Police department, they will help maintain a safer campus.