Surveillance cameras provide an added level of security around campus. The footage from the cameras can help solve crimes, direct emergency personnel to needed locations, or help pinpoint locations of distressed individuals.

   However, Pierce College employees are worried that the cameras that have been recently installed on campus may be used  for disciplinary purposes, such as being 5 minutes late or letting class out early.

   The original funding came from a grant from the Department of Homeland Security.

   The only eligible organizations that could apply for the grant had to be non-profit. The college is not a non-profit, it is a governmental agency, which is a totally separate category,” said Choi Halladay, vice president of administrative services. “But the Pierce College Foundation, which raises money for scholarships for the school, is a non-profit.”

    The Foundation applied for the grant and then handed over the money to the school to get the cameras installed.

   When the cameras were installed last summer, the Classified Staff union, Washington Public Employees Associations, had no idea they were even going in.

   “The cameras were brought to our attention that they were going in. We saw them digging ditches for the light standards and nobody knew what they were for.” said Bryan Torell, chief shop steward of the union.” “Someone mentioned that they were for the new cameras. We said ‘What new cameras?’ Well they are security cameras. At that point we went to the administration.”

  The union’s contract with the college states “employees generally will not be subjected to electronic monitoring in the workplace without notice by the Employer.”

   “Any time there is a change in our working conditions, we have the right to do a ‘demand to bargain’. said Mary Davis, a member of the union’s board of directors. “We meet with the administration and a representative from the Department of Labor Relations. We sit down and discuss what is going on with the change in working conditions.”    

   “They already made a decision to put in the cameras so we were only able to talk about the impact of the cameras being in. At the end of the talk we came to an impasse,”
Torell said.

   Through a few different meetings and meditations, the union and the administration came to a settlement. The settlement basically says if they add any new cameras or operate them in any other way than currently being used, the Administration will need to advise the Union.

   “Cameras serve as a tool to deter activities such as shooting and other criminal activities. None of the cameras are installed for the purpose of monitoring staff’s day to day activities.” per the signed agreement signed 22 April, 2015.

  So where are the cameras and what are they monitoring?

   The cameras are located at the North and South entrances of the parking lot, along with a camera under the sky bridge that connects Cascade to Olympic building, monitoring the commons area between the buildings facing the Rainier building.

   Pierce College is listed as a research facility that is regulated by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Although there is no animal testing on campus at the Veterinary Tech. site, this could raise safety concerns. Extremist animal activists could potentially attack the school to release the animals and damage the school.

   “We asked the administration if there was a camera pointed towards the Vet. Tech. and they told us no.” said Torell.

      “No one is actively monitoring the cameras,” said Chris MacKersie, director of safety and assistant director of facilities. “We are not staffed to have someone to sit in front of the cameras. Campus safety can access them if needed.”

  The footage is stored at the school’s network video recording servers that holds 10 Terabytes of data. Each campus has a dedicated server. The data is kept on the servers for about 10 weeks before they are recorded over by the cameras.

   “The more cameras that we add, the less amount of time we can keep the footage.” MacKersie said.

   Other law enforcement agencies could access the video footage, but only after filling out the proper paperwork or through a court order.

   With the amount of discussion that has happened between the administration and the union over the past few months, the two groups have seemed to come to an agreement and the cameras are here to stay.