With the rise of active shooter and active assailant attacks happening in our nation, more schools, institutions of higher education, and healthcare facilities are looking for better ways to keep intruders out, all while maintaining a welcoming environment for students, staff, patients, and guests. One of most effective ways to do this is to fortify the glass windows and glass doors on campus.

The question for protection professionals, however, is how to effectively accomplish this. Glass fortification is a complex issue that must be addressed with the help of a professional with years of experience protecting glass openings.

That’s why Campus Safety Editor-in-Chief Robin Hattersley spoke with Brad Campbell, president and founder of Riot Glass. Riot Glass is a manufacturer of retrofit security glazing systems designed to add a significant level of forced entry and/or ballistic protection to any building. 

In this interview Brad discusses:

• Why it is so important for glass openings, such as windows and doors, to be fortified: 2:05
• What type of assessment process he recommends so campuses adopt the right solution(s) for their facilities: 4:31
• The different types of glass protection solutions currently available on the market, and which ones are the most effective at preventing forced entry vs. the types that are best for severe weather, earthquakes, bomb blasts, privacy, and energy savings: 11:45
• Because there is a lot of attention on active assailants right now, the specific solutions to address this threat and how a campus can most effectively protect its glass openings from active assailants and other types of intruders: 18:28

At 22:25 of the interview, we watch a video that demonstrates how these various products work in both a test environment, as well as in real-life.

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Incidents of swatting, or reporting false threats to elicit an emergency response, are on the rise, and many are targeting K-12 schools and colleges.

In this interview, Jeffrey Yarbrough, police chief for the Hutto Police Department and former police chief of Round Rock Independent School District, both in Texas, talks about all things swatting, including why its so harmful (1:11), what the emergency response often involves (13:20), and how these incidents are impacting the mental health of students, staff, parents, and surrounding communities (19:07). 

Yarbrough also discussed: 

• How most of these threats are being communicated (5:43)
• The correlation between mass shootings and increased swatting threats (10:13)
• Lessons he's learned from responding to swatting calls (17:12)
• Suggestions for schools on how to identify false threats (21:14)
• Measures being put in place to increase charges that can be brought against someone who makes a swatting threat (25:37)

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Hazing is a significant issue in both K-12 schools and higher education. One study estimates 47% of students go to college already having experienced hazing, and 55% of college students involved in clubs, teams, and organizations experience hazing as well.

In this podcast, Holly Vector, Vice President of Education Strategy at Vector Solutions, speaks about the current state of hazing on college campuses, including:

• The psychological effects of hazing (6:06)
• The pandemic's impact on hazing (7:43)
• How colleges can mitigate hazing (15:45)
• The role of social media in hazing, including "RushTok" (19:09)
• The important role bystanders can play in mitigating hazing (28:08)
• What parents can do to help keep their children safe at college (30:54)

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Given recent events in K-12 schools, including an increase in crime, administrators are looking for various ways to help them abate school safety concerns, one of which is security technology.

Brandon Davito, VP of Product Operations at Verkada, discusses what customers are saying are their most significant qualms today and how technology is helping alleviate them, particularly staff shortages.

OTHER TOPICS IN THIS EPISODE:

• The importance of flexibility in willingness to integrate with existing solutions (2:19)
• How recent technological advances are improving visitor monitoring (4:03) and video surveillance (9:22)
• The current state of biometrics in the school security industry (6:43)
• How schools are working to alleviate inside threats (10:29)
• How visitor monitoring technology is helping front desk staff do their job better (15:35)
• Predictions for the future of access control and video surveillance in schools (18:37)

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One of the best ways to convince healthcare facility leadership of the need for a security, emergency management, or life safety system upgrade or change is to provide examples and data from other similar types of campuses of the success or failure of a particular type of technology, policy, or solution.

However, when it comes to healthcare security, there currently isn’t much data available that can prove or disprove that a solution or strategy works. 

That’s why the International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety (IAHSS) has released three new publications that lay the foundation for a more standardized and consistent approach to the collection and categorization of healthcare security incidents. 

To help us make sense of all of this, Campus Safety Editor-in-Chief Robin Hattersley interviewed Tony York, who is executive vice president of Paladin Security and PalAmerican Security, as well as past IAHSS president and board member.

In this interview, Tony addresses the following topics:

• A detailed explanation of the New Guidelines on Incident Categories and Data Analysis,  the IAHSS Healthcare Security Incident Category Framework, and the Healthcare Security Glossary of Terms: 2:29
• Why the healthcare security community needs a consistent approach to the collection and categorization of security incidents: 5:17 
• Why healthcare security executives need the ability to make apples-to-apples comparisons of incident data among different facilities, and how this helps healthcare executives and their organizations as a whole: 6:57
• Why already-overworked healthcare security professionals who are concerned that adopting this guidance will be a lot of hard work should put in the extra effort to adopt this guidance: 13:56
• Healthcare facility information confidentiality: 14:55
• Examples of how a healthcare security executive could down the road use this data to make the case for improved security at his or her organization: 16:40

For more information on the guidance, visit IAHSS.org. 

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Did you know a third of college students have bicycles on campus? And did you know that on many college and university campuses, more than half of all reported property crimes are for bike theft?

Craig Dalton, executive director of Bike Index, a nonprofit online bike registry that has helped recover over $19 million worth of stolen bikes, spoke with us about how the organization has partnered with more than 70 colleges and universities to curb bike thefts.

OTHER TOPICS IN THIS EPISODE:

• Challenges colleges/universities face regarding bike thefts and recovery (2:26)
• How Bike Index works (10:02)
• How Bike Index also works in conjunction with surrounding cities and towns, including police, to prevent bike thefts (26:49)
• Best practices for keeping a bike secure on campus (33:13)

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As more hospital, school, and university employees become concerned about their safety at work, many campuses are considering the adoption of panic buttons, which enable campus employees to summon for help when an emergency occurs. 

In this interview with Campus Safety, Craig Dever from Inovonics talks about:

• The overall benefits and applications of wireless sensors, as well as how these sensors can improve security and safety at schools, hospitals, institutions of higher education and other organizations. 1:45
• How systems with wireless sensors, including mobile duress devices, can be integrated with other security systems, such as access control, video surveillance, intrusion, etc.: 4:23
• How these systems can be monitored either by onsite personnel or offsite central stations: 5:08
• The benefits of using mobile duress devices: 5:29
• The challenges associated with traditional panic alarms: 6:15
• How Inovonics’ mobile duress buttons address these challenges as well as help first responders during an emergency: 6:59
• Real-life applications of mobile duress systems in education and healthcare: 8:50

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Since the 1999 Columbine High School shooting, more than 311,000 U.S. students have experienced gun violence at school.

Teodora Pavkovic, a youth psychologist and parenting coach, offers tips for both school employees and parents on how to speak with kids and teens about school gun violence. Pavkovic also shares how to appropriately adjust those discussions based on a student's age.

OTHER TOPICS IN THIS EPISODE:

• Questions and concerns that arise among kids and teens following a violent incident at a school (3:03)
• The importance of having all employees on the same page for how to address questions (22:06)
• Free resources to help school employees with speaking to students about violence (24:37)

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After a violent incident at a school, investigators sometimes determine security technology or lacking policies proved somewhat or completely ineffective in preventing or mitigating that incident. This often leaves schools rushing to implement new or improved technology that is disparate and doesn't seamlessly integrate with other technologies.

Jason Friedberg, commercial lead for education at Genetec, Inc., shares how unified access control and video surveillance systems increase campus safety while also saving money.

OTHER TOPICS IN THIS EPISODE:

• What campuses should be looking for in a unified system to help them reduce total cost of ownership while improving effectiveness (1:35)
• Minimal standards security and public safety departments should expect from physical and electronic security systems (8:38)
• Standards customers are finding the most challenging to comply with (13:15)
• How a unified system positively influences the roles of campus police (15:40)
• What Genetec is doing to help schools adopt unified security systems and how the company addresses varying budgets (17:40)
• Other concerns and challenges customers have voiced regarding campus security and technology (24:08)

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Despite us being 2 ½ years into the pandemic and there being plenty of federal funding available, many schools have not taken action to improve their indoor air quality.

To help us find ways that schools can take advantage of this funding, Campus Safety Editor-in-Chief Robin Hattersley interviewed Karen Cooper, who is director of offer management at Honeywell Building Technologies. 

In this interview, Karen discusses:

• The funds that are available for schools to update their indoor air quality and when must those funds be used by: 1:13
• How schools can utilize the federal funds: 2:30
• How school can determine what to prioritize for upgrades: 3:09
• What long-term strategies schools can adopt to not only upgrade their indoor air quality but also maintain it for years to come: 4:04

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