Column: There's no way there are 142 outdoor cameras
In the annual State of the University luncheon last Tuesday Dr. Sandra Jordan, chancellor of USC Aiken, mentioned the addition of new cameras outdoors, with the new total being 142 cameras on the USC Aiken campus.
If you are like me and needed the University Police’s help for damage done to your car, thievery or any other plausible excuse to pull camera footage, then you know that there is just no feasible way that we have 142 cameras outdoors around the campus of this school.
Any time a student reaches out to the UPD for damages to their car, they are told more often than not that there is no evidence that can be found to assist their case.
If we as a campus had 142 cameras outside and in our parking lots, then the ever-popular “we will get back to you if we hear anything” statement would not be what the campus police fall back on each time.
Furthermore, there is the question of what the use of the cameras we do have is.
On the USCA Student Life page, Jonah Boucher stated in a post, “Whoever says there aren’t cameras in the parking lots here is proof that there are” alongside a photo of his motorcycle taken from the parking lot camera where he received a ticket.
If there are as many cameras as they tell us there are, then why are they being used to give students tickets in the same parking lots where their vehicles are being damaged?
If the school wants to advertise the abundance of outdoor cameras in the parking lots on campus, then the UPD needs to use those to the advantage of the students who pay money to attend this school and not just themselves.
This column is written with the opinions of one editor and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Pacer Times.
Photo by Sports Editor Michael Kuras.
