Plan allows police access to Fulton County school cameras

FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — When an emergency strikes at Fulton County Schools, officials say a new agreement brokered this week will allow local law enforcement to have real-time information as they respond.
 
Fulton County Schools has hundreds of cameras placed throughout its buildings, monitoring everything that happens.
 
"If we see something that doesn't look quite right, we don't wait for it to happen, we go ahead and dispatch and say we have something very suspicious and we want to deploy police or school personnel," said Dr. Shannon Flounnory, head of district security.
 
Flounnory told Channel 2's Mike Petchenik this week the district struck a deal with Sandy Springs police that will allow officers to view video feeds for the schools in its jurisdiction if an emergency, such as an active shooter, arises.
 
"Allowing our partners in a local municipality to get real-time data provides them enough information so that they can be very tactical in terms of assisting us with any necessary response," he said.
 
Flounnory said it's just a pilot program for now, but if successful, they plan to roll it out to other departments.
 
"Fulton County is very unique in that we serve 13 different municipalities."
 
Sandy Springs police Deputy Chief Keith Zgonc told Petchenik his department welcomes the partnership.
 
"We work closely with Fulton County school police, with the schools in our jurisdiction -- the officers have relationships with them," he said.
 
Officials said they hope to have the software up and running by the start of school in August.

Cox Media Group