New campus camera system costs 1.7 million euros

The university is investing 1.7 million euros in a new camera security system on the Woudestein campus. The current system needs replacing. The new system will not bring about many changes, but image quality will improve significantly and the underlying infrastructure will be upgraded.

In the control room, at a secret location on campus, the cameras are monitored 24 hours a day. A security guard always sits opposite a wall of screens. The guard currently on duty shows how he can switch between the many cameras on campus using his computer, and how he can make a camera look around and zoom in and out with a joystick. It all looks ultra-modern, but appearances are deceptive.

Risk of failure

“The current system is simply end of life”, says head of Integral Security Jos Bal. “As with all technical systems, there comes a point when they are no longer supported.” The risk of failure with this ageing system has become too great. The quality of the stored images is also very low.

The university doesn’t need to replace all the cameras. The lack of image quality is mainly due to the storage system, not the cameras. Images are stored at a lower quality than they are recorded at. According to data protection officer Marlon Domingus, the images in the new system will not be analysed using artificial intelligence. “It is explicitly stipulated that no AI, such as facial recognition or emotion recognition, will be used in the camera system. I will ensure that doesn’t happen.”

Police chase on campus

According to Bal, an extensive camera network inside and outside buildings is essential for safety on campus. “We have people and valuable property to protect, at the same time the campus is very open. Buildings are not always staffed in the evenings. You want to safeguard the safety of people and belongings. That can be partly achieved with security guards, but this is a huge site and with the number of guards we have you can’t see everything. Cameras are therefore supportive. They are extra eyes.” Not ears, by the way: the cameras don’t record sound.

An incident in which cameras were helpful took place on 23 January. A police chase through the city ended up on the Woudestein campus. Two Belgians drove a car across the campus and came to a stop at the sports building. One of the two suspects was arrested there, the other appeared to have vanished without a trace. “The security guard in the central control room was then able to spot the second suspect via the camera system. Thanks to him the man was arrested after all”, says a university spokesperson.

Bal also knows an example where the opposite, the absence of cameras, was a major problem. “Burglars broke into the P-building (where the student associations are located under the K.P. van der Mandeleplein, ed.). They were able to carry on there for some time and a lot was stolen. We had zero visibility there. Cameras could certainly have helped.”

Two cameras to be moved

The university plans to move two cameras so the control room will have a better of the Van der Mandeleplein and other blind spots. It is still waiting for approval from the University Council on the move.

The Integral Security department doesn’t want to share how many cameras there are or where they’re located exactly. “Publishing a full map will also show where there are no cameras. That will help criminals and we don’t want that”, says Bal. Work is currently underway on a new camera regulation, the current one dates from 2013 and is due for an update, among other things to provide for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The new system is expected to be put into use in 2027.