By Margarita Cancino
East Los Angeles College Sheriff’s Department is working on relocating and updating 178 security cameras on campus.
The upgrades and relocations are needed in order to keep up with the times and give everyone a sense of safety.
Students and staff do not need to worry that the cameras will invade their privacy. The security cameras will not be put in locker rooms, restrooms or classrooms.
The security cameras are going to be placed in areas most frequented by students, such as the parking lots, behind the G1 building and around the library.
Crimes or suspicious activity caught on video will be dealt with immediately.
Even crimes not caught on video are being solved, so the upgrade and relocation of the security cameras will be of great help to the Sheriff’s Department.
Sherrif Deputy Humberto Barragan, team leader in the Sheriff’s Department, is especially pushing for the upgrade and relocation of the cameras.
He wants students to feel safe. In the same way that he would want his own children to feel safe on campus.
“I believe that there is always room for improvement. We can always do the job better. We can always have better equipment. Why do we upgrade our phones? Because a new one comes out, that can do so much more than the last,” said Barragan.
Upgrading and relocating the security cameras on campus is not the only issue being pushed.
The lighting and cutting of trees to minimize dark shadows are also being addressed.
Tree trimming and the replacement of lights on some parts of campus have already been in the process, but more are expected to happen in the near future.
“You can have 100 cameras and if you have terrible lighting then those cameras are useless, nothing will be seen regardless,” Barragan said.
Marlene Alejandre, freshmen at ELAC, is currently taking a night class.
“I have class until 10 p.m., and I get a little anxiety from time to time walking back to my car alone,” Alejandre said.
There are currently 30 cadets on campus who are available to escort students to class.
Their main focus is to keep and make sure that students feel safe at all times.
Barragan said that students are here at ELAC to learn and earn a degree.
The last thing they need to worry about is another person doing harm to them on campus.
The Sheriff’s Department feels that if there are more cameras visible to seeing eye, people would feel safer and it would discourage wrong doing.