OTTUMWA, IOWA -- You have seen them throughout downtown Ottumwa. The camera system used by the Ottumwa Police Department to help keep an eye on the area. Now, two of those cameras have been installed near Ottumwa High School.
“The Ottumwa High School basically bought the cameras, that allowed us to simply connect them into our system, so we can have access up here at the school,” said Sgt. Chad Farrington with the Ottumwa Police Department.
The school already has a school resource officer, but this is just another tool that the department, along with the district, can use to make sure students are safe.
“It gives us kind of an overall view of both sides of the school, in the event we are having situations such as fights, criminal mischief, burglaries from vehicles, different things like that,” Farrington said.
In video provided by the department to KTVO, you can see how clear the picture is. The operator could see inside of this police car, even close enough to see the details on KTVO camera equipment. In other parts of the video, you can see Sgt. Farrington explaining how the camera operates, by sending its signal to the Hoffman Building and to the Wapello County Law Center.
Police tell KTVO that they could be adding more cameras at the high school, but they could also extend the program to other campuses throughout the community.
“That is something that can be discussed in the future and could beneficial to both the school system and the police department. Our camera system works off a line of sight system, it would all depend on if the camera we put up at that school would have a line of sight to our receiver in downtown Ottumwa,” Farrington said.
The new school year starts on Wednesday, August 22nd in Ottumwa.
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