A Baltimore City Council subcommittee unanimously voted — on the same day as the Virginia Tech massacre — for a bill that would equip every school in Baltimore with security cameras.

Councilmen Kenneth Harris, D-District 4, and Keiffer Jackson Mitchell, D-District 11, referenced a gunman’s attack on Virginia Tech students and professors when they voted for the cameras Monday during a vote of the Education, Housing, Health and Human Services Committee.

“We have to do something to show that we care about our children and that we want them to feel safe so that, knock on wood, something like what happened in Columbine or Virginia Tech doesn’t happen [here],” Harris said after the vote.

“This will make people reconsider making an unwelcome visit to a school,” Antonio Williams, Baltimore City Public Schools police chief, testified during a hearing last month. “It can be assumed that most children will not step too far out of line if they believe they are likely to be caught.”

This story continues below
Advertisement

When schools produce crime footage — even if the quality is too poor for use in court — the child typically admits to the act, Williams said.

Of the city’s 197 schools, 53 have cameras monitoring hallways and stairwells.

Each school’s camera system costs between $70,000 and $154,000, Williams said. Harris estimated that camera installation in all Baltimore schools would cost between $8 million and $10 million.

School police who studied the impact of cameras at the 11 city schools that most recently received cameras found that from August 2006 to February, as compared with the same period last school year: Six schools reported a decline in crime; three experienced no change; and two saw an increase.

Ten additional city schools are slated for camera installation. Some Baltimore County schools also have cameras.

The bill will appear before the entire City Council Monday.

kvolkmann@baltimoreexaminer.com