OSCR360 has been gaining traction all over the United States, as hundreds of Law Enforcement Agencies, Fire Departments, District Attorney’s Offices and School Districts have adopted the system.
We recently had the opportunity to catch up with two School Resource Officers employed by Fayette County Public Schools (FCPS) in Kentucky and learn more about their experiences and feedback after implementing OSCR360.
Welcome to Fayette County, Kentucky
Fayette County Public Schools (FCPS) is home to one of the largest student populations in all of the state, with over 40,000 students across more than seventy school buildings. Fayette County Public Schools Police Department (FCPS PD) employs approximately 80 Police Officers, each tasked with keeping the FCPS student and staff population safe on a daily basis. FCPS has employed Police Officers since 1971 and has been a trend-setter in the school safety sphere ever since, as other districts look to them as a leader in statewide and nationwide best practices.
A Meeting at NASRO
As is common in many large school districts, each Officer employed by FCPS is assigned to monitor the halls, watch the security cameras, and respond to incidents within a specific building. Outside of their assigned buildings, Officers are not always familiar with the layouts of the other buildings within the County, which could make it difficult to respond to certain incidents.
So, when Fayette County’s Officer Hack and Officer Tran traveled to the 2023 National Association for School Resource Officers (NASRO), they were intrigued to discover a new resource with the potential to make a significant difference in the Fayette County Public Schools’ day-to-day and long-term safety plans: OSCR360.
Officers Hack and Tran recognized the patented OSCR360 System as an easy, self-explanatory tool to assist FCPS Police Officers with their typical responsibilities throughout the day, such as effectively and efficiently monitoring building security cameras, as well as a comprehensive tool to help the team train for and respond to potential large-scale emergencies.
After acquiring their OSCR360 System, the Officers attended a brief training session with the L-Tron Law Enforcement Support Team, and they were up and running.
Day-to-Day Safety Procedures in FCPS
There are over 6,000 security cameras in the Fayette County Public Schools, with some of the buildings having 300 cameras each. The FCPS Police Officers are responsible for watching the cameras every day, as well as responding to security incidents as needed. There is a lot of responsibility. With the sheer volume of cameras, it can be time consuming to identify which camera would be best to look at when investigating specific incidents.
Officers Hack and Tran identified that OSCR360 could be used as a daily resource for Officers by plotting each of the FCPS security cameras on a map in OSCR360’s desktop software. When an incident happens, the responding Officers can quickly pull up the map to locate the area they would like to view on the camera system. Then, they can easily identify which camera view(s) will yield the best observation of the incident in question.
“It’s so nice to know what we’re looking at. We’re on the cameras every day. Whether there be a fight or any investigation, we don’t automatically know what camera it is. OSCR360 has significantly streamlined the way it works with our cameras that we already have. [The security camera system can be] a little confusing and messy and OSCR360 has allowed us to organize everything.”
FCPS Police Officer
The process of creating the security camera mapping system has involved documenting the buildings in 360-degrees with the OSCR360 camera, and then plotting the location of each security camera as a Point-of-Interest (POI) in the OSCR360 desktop software.
This is completed during office hours and the Officers are careful to cross reference each POI with the camera views. Each POI is labeled according to the name of the camera in the building’s security software, so when an Officer looks at a camera, they immediately know where it is and can quickly pull it up to view in the OSCR360 desktop software.
FCPS Officers have also been impressed with how fast OSCR360 takes a picture. They appreciate the clarity of the photos and the ability to look around within the photo in 360-degrees.
From fights between students to thefts, and every incident in between, OSCR360 is proving to be a powerful tool to share among the Police Officer team, as well as with FCPS administrators.
Long-Term and Active Threats to the Schools
“OSCR360 is about being prepared as best as you can, and hopefully you never need to use it [in an actual emergency situation].”
FCPS Police Officer
Plotting the security camera system in OSCR360 provides a basic framework for the Fayette County Public Schools Police Officers to work from, but OSCR360 also facilitates so much more.
For example, all of the FCPS AEDs and bleeding control stations are plotted as POIs for easy reference, as are the Fire Department lockboxes in the front of the buildings.
What’s more, is that Officer Hack and Officer Tran are taking the documentation of each school building and creating a virtual walkthrough, so that from the comfort of their offices, the FCPS Police Officers can tour all 70 school buildings at their convenience.
“We have 70 buildings, and in a perfect world, [all of the Officers] would know the layout of all of those. That’s not the case.”
FCPS Police Officer
The ability to familiarize themselves with buildings they would normally never typically enter due to time and logistic constraints is a huge asset. In the event of an emergency scenario or active shooter incident, all the responding Officers will have the ability to pull up the school building in their OSCR360 software and gain a general idea of the surroundings they will be walking into.
It’s a way to be prepared for what they’re responding to, and to clearly communicate their surroundings with other Officers.
“There would be nothing worse than going into one of your buildings and being completely lost. Having dispatch radio information going crazy, people yelling out different numbers and directions and not knowing exactly where to go.”
FCPS Police Officer
Each side and door on the FCPS buildings are labeled A, B, C, or D, so if an Officer says, “Enter the building through 7C,” another Officer can look immediately on the map. Not only will they see exactly where to go, they will also get an idea of the layout inside and what it will look like.
In addition to sharing the OSCR360 project on the FCPS server with all of the Fayette County Public School Police Officers and administrators, FCPS also plans to share access with the City’s Police Department, local Sheriff’s Office, and City Fire Department via the free OSCR360 viewer.
“It’s important that anyone and everyone responding to a school emergency knows what they’re walking into. When there is a major incident at a school, many agencies show up. With so many partnerships throughout the city, we recognize that knowledge is power and that we should share that knowledge with others.”
FCPS Police Officer
Why does OSCR360 matter?
According to Officers Hack and Tran, OSCR360 is truly a game changer for Fayette County Public Schools.
“One of the worst things about being a Police Officer is walking into a situation blindly. No matter what, we won’t know exactly what’s going on…but going in and not knowing the layout is too much. OSCR360 serves the purpose as to why we are even employed and why we have jobs. It helps us to maintain the safety of the buildings and to be prepared.”
“To summarize, we’re obsessed with it!”
Thank you for taking the time to chat with us, Officer Hack and Officer Tran, and for your dedication to the safety of Fayette County Public Schools!
