4 Ways to Improve Campus Safety This Back-to-School Season and Beyond

Summary

• Integrated access control keeps restricted areas secure without creating unnecessary work—especially when connected to video surveillance and incident management systems.
• Real-time, AI-powered analytics help security teams catch and respond to issues before they escalate, even when staff can’t monitor every camera feed.
• Coordinated emergency response protocols ensure campus police, administration, and local law enforcement can respond quickly and consistently during high-stress events.
• Mobile surveillance units provide flexible, cost-effective coverage for hard-to-monitor campus areas like remote lots, construction zones, and temporary spaces.

I went to university in a relatively low-crime area. The kind of place where a student could leave their laptop unattended on a library table when they stepped away for a bathroom break and not worry that it would be gone when they returned. The kind of place where, when staying out late, students were more worried about getting written up for breaking curfew than they were about anything bad actually happening to them.

But even then, there were certain stairwells and alleyways the student population knew to avoid. There were still occasional reports of groping, theft, or rowdy breakouts following crowded campus events. Nothing that made headlines, but enough to remind you that even on a “safe” campus, things happen.

According to the U.S. Department of Education in 2023, U.S. colleges and universities reported more than 41,000 criminal offenses, 2,600 hate crimes, 21,000 arrests, and 19,000 Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) offenses across more than 10,000 campus locations. And that only scratches the surface of what campus safety teams are up against. 

From mental health emergencies and large-scale events to managing open perimeters and navigating outdated infrastructure, there are a lot of moving parts to consider when trying to maintain a secure environment. In this article, we’ll explore four security strategies to reduce campus crime and keep staff and students safe.  

1. Integrated Access Control

Many campuses have some form of access control in place. Some setups are pretty old-school; maybe students have to call a resident advisor to get into their building late at night. Other solutions are more automated, like keycard or biometric scanners.

At the end of the day, the goal isn’t to choose the most impressive or high-tech solution; it’s to choose the solution that keeps people out of places they shouldn’t be without creating a bunch of unnecessary work or confusion. When your access control solution doesn’t play nicely with the rest of your tools, things can get messy. 

You can see in your log that a student badges into a building after hours, but without synced video, you don’t know if they were alone or if the badge was even used by the right person. It creates more work for your team, and it makes it hard to catch small issues before they turn into big ones. 

That’s why it’s important to think about how access control fits into the larger security picture. When it’s integrated—connected directly to your surveillance, alerting, and incident management tools—teams can understand what’s happening and respond quickly instead of wasting time jumping between platforms or piecing things together days later. 

2. Real-Time, AI-Powered Analytics

Security cameras are commonplace on campuses (as of 2022, over 90% of public schools use them). But cameras don’t prevent escalation; they document it.

If a fire breaks out in a remote spot on campus, a camera will document how it started, but if no one sees that footage for even thirty minutes, the damage could be catastrophic by the time anyone responds. The same goes for break-ins, unauthorized gatherings, vandalism, or other unwanted behaviors. When incidents are caught early, they’re easier (and cheaper) to contain. 

One possible solution is to have security staff monitor live feeds, but most teams are small and stretched thin. And even if you can spare a few personnel to watch surveillance feeds, keeping eyes on every study room, green space, parking lot, and lecture hall at all times probably isn’t realistic.

Luckily, there’s a better option. Agentic AI can monitor surveillance feeds in real time, flag unusual behavior, send instant alerts about legitimate threats to your team, and when appropriate, it can even take action (like triggering a flashing light, sounding an alarm, or issuing a personalized warning to guilty parties). 

Whether it’s catching property damage before it spreads, flagging a fight before it escalates, or alerting your team to suspicious movement, real-time, AI-powered analytics and alerts give you the chance to act before things go sour. 

3. Coordinated Emergency Response Protocols

In the midst of a high-stress situation, you don’t have time to guess who’s supposed to do what. But a fast, effective response depends on coordination between campus police, security staff, administration, and sometimes even local law enforcement. And keeping that many people on the same page is easier said than done. 

Establishing emergency response protocols helps because it creates a clear chain of command and defines responsibilities. But when your security tools don’t support those protocols—when alerts are siloed, systems aren’t integrated, or footage isn’t accessible when and where you need it—your team loses valuable time, and with it, control. 

To avoid this, the solutions you invest in should enable real-time, shared visibility. These solutions could include: 

• Live video sharing with first responders: Some security platforms allow law enforcement to access live surveillance footage during an active incident.
• Centralized response tools: Integrated systems can be set up to send real-time alerts, filter notifications by type, and give operators remote control of surveillance units. 
• Visual dispatch support: At Georgia Tech, for example, 911 callers can stream video directly to dispatchers, helping them assess the situation more accurately and respond faster.
  Mapped camera access: In some states, school districts have linked motion sensors to digital maps and camera systems, allowing dispatchers to quickly identify a trespasser’s location and relay that information to law enforcement.

4. Mobile Security Solutions

Every campus—no matter how big or small—has blind spots. Think: far-end parking lots, rarely-used stadiums, loading docks, poorly lit walking paths, or overflow housing. These nooks, crannies, and remote locations might not justify permanent cameras or full-time patrols, but that doesn’t mean you should leave them unprotected. 

Mobile surveillance units offer a scalable, cost-effective way to cover those blind spots. You can deploy them for events, use them to monitor construction zones, campus perimeters, or access points, or all of the above. And because they’re solar-powered and wireless, there’s no trenching, no power hookups, and no permanent footprint to worry about. Or if you need to cover tighter spaces, check out our other mounting options, including the wall mount, pole mount, and more. 

The bottom line is that campuses are dynamic by nature, so campus safety solutions should be too.

Whether you're looking to expand coverage with mobile surveillance units, facilitate collaboration between campus security teams and local law enforcement, or make sure your security tools support your campus policies and protocols, LVT can help you get there.

→ Explore our campus safety solutions.