There are approximately 3,000 closed-circuit TV cameras on campus, according to NC State Police Chief Dan House. Some call for more transparency regarding how these cameras are used and who can access the footage.
Mike Nutt, a data experience manager at NC State Libraries, said he thinks a robust security camera system on campus can be misused without sufficient oversight.
“The main thing to understand about surveillance cameras is that they cannot keep you safe,” Nutt said. “A camera is not going to make you safer, and the surveillance technology is often misused, whether or not there are good intentions behind the technology. I know that our students just had a [$15] security fee hike last fall, and I think a lot of students would be surprised to know how much of their money is being spent on surveilling them. I think it deserves a lot of transparency because of the expenditure of it, and whether or not we could make different choices that actually increase safety, rather than increase surveillance.”
Scott McInturf, the director of Security Applications and Technologies (SAT), said SAT is responsible for maintaining standards to ensure security technologies are used effectively and appropriately, and the department oversees the use and maintenance of all security cameras on campus.
“In a very broad sense, we are installing cameras on the perimeter of buildings, looking at exclusively public spaces and primarily the entrances and exit points of buildings,” McInturf said. “That’s where the vast majority of our cameras reside. We do have some that are in public spaces, for instance, the Belltower would be a good example, where we have some cameras that keep an eye on the Belltower. Or the stadium, we’ve got cameras at the football stadium.”
House said SAT grants the department access to the cameras, but NC State Police rarely watch the live feeds; the footage is primarily used for forensic purposes to aid an investigation. According to NC State Rule 05.06.03, unless recorded video is preserved as part of a criminal investigation or court proceeding, footage is stored for up to 30 days and then erased.
According to House, the department doesn’t have authority to share footage with other law enforcement agencies — all footage requests must be made through SAT. However, NC State Police does receive access to footage from the North Carolina Department of Transportation, which has cameras on roads near campus.
NC State Police conducts hot-spot monitoring on occasion, House said. Operators will watch live feeds to monitor specific areas, including intersections with high pedestrian traffic and large events.
“A good example is a football game,” House said. “So we may have a football game going on, which is the event we’re really trying to manage, and then we have a fight that breaks out in a parking lot. So that’s a whole other event within an event that we have to manage.”
Hannah Jones, a fourth-year studying communication, said while it can be slightly unnerving to know you’re being watched on camera, she understands the advantages of closed-circuit TV camera use.
“If something were to happen where the cameras are, I wouldn’t say it makes me feel safer,” Jones said. “It makes me feel like if something were to happen, then something would be more likely to in turn happen to the person who did it, because [the police] could probably more easily identify them.”
House said he would like to expand the network of closed-circuit TV cameras, especially in places on campus that are highly populated.
“Stafford Commons is a good area that we have some cameras, but we’d love to have a little bit more, just because a lot of times, that turns into a protest area, that kind of thing, and that way we’re able to protect our students,” House said. “Mostly, what we have issues with is counter-protesters. It’s usually our students that aren’t the issue, it’s other people that come to campus that cause problems, so that’s typically what we’d use those for.”
A key topic of controversy regarding law enforcement use of closed-circuit TV camera networks is the integration of advanced analytics technologies, such as facial recognition, which some argue is deployed with a lack of oversight and can be biased. According to House, the University does not currently use advanced analytics technologies such as automated license plate readers and facial recognition.
“At this point in time, we just haven’t seen a need,” House said. “Plus, there’s some level of privacy interests. I really don’t care who comes in and out of the campus; it’s a public campus, as long as they don’t cause problems. And then if they do, we’ll deal with it then.”
Tyler DeAtley, a doctoral candidate in communication, rhetoric and digital media, said transparency concerning closed-circuit TV camera use is important, but institutions also must make an effort to abide by the rules.
“Transparency is wonderful in principle, but institutions have to follow through on the principles of transparency, what they make, right?” DeAtley said. “So letting people know how data is collected, what we use it for, how long is it stored, I think goes a long way.”
DeAtley said he thinks it is beneficial for people to consider whether they feel comfortable with the closed-circuit TV camera network on campus because it can inspire larger dialogues about data use in society.
“It’s a tension point to perhaps prompt critical self-reflections of our environments because at the same time, yeah, NCSU has a lot of cameras, but we all exist in a constant state of being watched,” DeAtley said. “These things are watching us in a lot of different ways. Whether it’s Amazon, or Meta, or TikTok, all of the data eyes that are on us at all times are watching us and seeing how our behaviors begin to correlate with our buying habits and things like that. So at minimum thinking through ‘NCSU has a lot of eyes on us,’ who else has eyes on us? And how do we push back against this? Or how do we enter negotiations with these large institutions on how to change things?”
McInturf said he believes it is important to have minimum security standards and clear policy regarding the use of security technologies.
“We spend a lot of time trying to do it the right way,” McInturf said. “I think it’s important for colleges to have institutional knowledge of these types of technologies and be methodical in terms of how they’re implemented, and who knows where they’re implemented. Otherwise, I think there is the possibility that they could be installed and maybe even misused. So we’ve spent a lot of time and a lot of years trying to make sure that we’re doing it the right way.”
