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IN-DEPTH: SHADY COVE SCHOOL SECURITY SYSTEM Sheriff Falls pulls plug on Shady Cove video security system Sheriff rejects Winters' lone-school system in favor of deputies close at hand Comment By Nick Morgan Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Nick Morgan Mail Tribune Posted Oct. 29, 2015 at 12:01 AM By Nick Morgan Mail Tribune Posted Oct. 29, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Social News A security system that cost more than a quarter-million dollars and would allow the Jackson County Sheriff's Department real-time surveillance inside an elementary school in crisis has been abandoned. The 22 Toshiba HDTVs lining two walls of a room sit dark, along with five, four-monitor computer workstations. They were part of a command center for a first-of-its-kind security system installed in 2013 inside one of Jackson County's smallest schools, Shady Cove, under the administration of then-Sheriff Mike Winters. Other hardware pieces from the command center are still used as auxiliary dispatch equipment, but Sheriff Corey Falls, who unseated Winters in 2014, decided not to renew the department's annual contract with the systems' designer last spring. Falls considers well-trained first-responders located near the schools to be a better use of resources. "I think you have to have well-trained deputies that are monitoring your schools in order to respond in a timely manner," Falls said. Falls said beyond annual expenses in the contract, the system required him to devote a staff member to focus on one school — something he saw as a distraction. "We have around 20 schools that we're responsible for in unincorporated Jackson County," Falls said. "It's important to keep all those schools safe." The new sheriff's shift in priorities is a disappointment for Lawrence Winslow, president and CEO of Future Concepts, makers of the school security system and command center. "They were one of the first ones," Winslow said of Jackson County. "This new sheriff doesn't embrace technology." Future Concepts' NEXARsos system was installed over Memorial Day weekend in 2013 and equipped each Shady Cove elementary and middle school classroom with security cameras and a bright red "Emergency" button that could alert local law enforcement of an incident such as a school shooter. Law enforcement could then tap into surveillance cameras at the school, control all locks remotely, use school intercoms and even switch multicolored lights above classroom doors to direct authorities to the threat. The system cost $278,333 to install and was paid for with funds seized from drug forfeitures, according to Jackson County senior deputy administrator Harvey Bragg. Adroit Construction and Precision Electric donated labor involved in the installation at the school, according to Mike Winters. Winslow said annual service costs were $3,588 to monitor the school, plus a minimum $19,000 needed to pair the footage to the command center at the sheriff's department. Still prominently featured on the NEXARsos.com website is a seven-minute promotional video showing law enforcement reacting to an alarm and observing surveillance camera footage from the Shady Cove school. The footage is presented as a contrast to the several minutes' delay in police response time to the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre in 2012. Winters is quoted in the video: "Time equals lives," he says. Winters said last week he stands by his decision to use Future Concepts' systems. He said the systems were purchased within budget. "The more systems you can use to save manpower — that's the direction you need to go," Winters said. Winters said the money that purchased Future Concepts' equipment couldn't have been used on staff. "The money that put that system in wasn't at the expense of wage and benefit packages for deputies," he said. Winters said he saw value in Future Concepts' software and technologies at the core of the control center. "It can be used in tracking your assets in any sort of emergency," Winters said. Falls said the control center was an expensive tool designed in large part for surveillance of large crowds in metropolitan areas. He said less costly tools are available for smaller departments such as Jackson County. Falls said he’s dedicated to school safety and security. An active shooter training focusing on tactically moving to the source of gunfire was held in August in Butte Falls, and in September the sheriff's office hosted a school threats seminar with FBI trainers highlighting previous cases and best practices. Specifically for Shady Cove, Falls said, he prioritized making sure a trained deputy was nearby over surveillance technology. "We went from having a community service officer to a sworn officer, which is another resource for that community," Falls said. The county commissioners this week renewed a $426,836 contract with the city of Shady Cove to provide law enforcement services through June 30, 2016. Falls said he embraces technology, citing plans to equip deputies with body cameras in 2016. Winters said he had larger ambitions for the NEXAR system and command center. "We were expanding on that system," Winters said. His administration partnered with the Southern Oregon University Research Center to apply for a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice in 2014. The grant made funds of up to $5 million available to schools toward safety systems, and Winters saw it as a way to expand NEXAR into more schools. "The Rogue Valley would've set the trend for the entire nation," Winters said. SOU criminology professor Lee Ayers worked with Winters on a grant application that requested more than $3 million to expand the system to Crater and Eagle Point high schools and fund programs coordinating agencies' efforts to help at-risk youth. "We wanted to target intervention at all levels," Ayers said. The grant was rejected in large part because the multifaceted approach made the programs difficult to replicate. NEXARsos is "a significant cost" and "not a feasible intervention for other school systems to adopt this, and national replication is a large intent in this call," said a grant reviewer in a 2014 document from the Department of Justice rejecting the grant. Ayers believes funding to expand NEXARsos could have been approved in a revised grant with a narrower scope, but the command center's future was uncertain after Falls was elected. "There was a changing of the guard," Ayers said. Ayers said she understands Falls' approach, admitting the system is "expensive," but saw value in it. "This is something that if you don't have an interest in it, it's square peg, round hole," Ayers said. Falls said that had an additional grant been issued, or if the contract had been longer, he would have stood by the previous administration's decisions on the system. Falls said his decision not to renew Future Concepts' contract was a collaborative one. He said he sought "numerous" opinions on the system inside and outside his department, speaking with emergency managers, law enforcement executives and other sheriffs, and his own deputies, supervisors and commanders. "Nobody even tried to go to bat for it," Falls said. Falls concluded Future Concepts' systems weren't industry standard. Falls remembered attending a presentation on NEXAR when he was deputy chief of Ashland police. "There was a big push to sell this and market it," Falls said. "It's something that was introduced that didn't take off in our industry." The Bend Police Department considered the NEXAR system for Bend area schools, but the department ultimately passed, according to a July 26, 2013, article in the Bend Bulletin. Winslow said the NEXAR system is currently installed in five schools in California, and said the company just signed a $3.9 million contract with the U.S. Air Force. Allen Barber, human resources director for Eagle Point schools, said many of the NEXAR system's centralized security features — such as emergency buttons and door locks — are still operational in the Shady Cove school building. "The system still functions at all points at the school," Barber said. Barber said expanding the NEXAR system remains one of the more costly items in a list of safety recommendations the School Board developed, even without command center access. According to the Weapon Safety Committee Recommendation issued May 14, 2014, projected costs to expand the system through the remainder of the district were $2.4 million. "Installing the complete NEXAR System in every building would be the most secure safety system we could implement," the report states. "You could say we're a little disappointed, but we certainly understand where the sheriff is coming from," Barber said. Barber said Falls gave the district plenty of notice he was not renewing the Future Concepts' contract. Falls said he continued the NEXAR system as implemented by Winters through the 2014-2015 school year. "I was very conscious about not changing anything in the middle of the school year," Falls said. Reach reporter Nick Morgan at 541-776-4471 or [email protected]. By Nick Morgan Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Nick Morgan Mail Tribune Posted Oct. 29, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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