Rhonda Birdsong and her student workers have, by far, the best view on the Kansas University campus.

Birdsong, a KU Police staff member, recently helped implement a $380,000 security system that monitors the campus day and night using cameras that can be controlled remotely with a click of a mouse.

Police say the cameras have had a noticeable impact on reducing crime, especially in 10 residence-hall parking lots monitored by the cameras, where crime reports dropped 23 percent from 2004 to 2005.

“Considering the safety of the students and staff, they’ve been a benefit,” said Birdsong, an employee at the KU police department for the past 24 years.

Rhonda Birdsong, public service administrator in the KU Office of Public Safety, sits in front of a row of monitors that display areas of campus covered by security cameras.

Planning for the cameras began after a series of violent crimes in residence-hall parking areas started in 2003, but the devices didn’t start rolling until August 2005. Installing the cameras took longer than some people would have liked, but police said it was because they wanted to find a state-of-the-art system that will work for years to come.

“We just don’t want to throw up a haphazard system,” Birdsong said at the time.

The control center for the cameras is a room on the top floor of Carruth-O’Leary Hall inside the KU Public Safety Office. Four flat-screen TVs with multiple views on each screen show an ever-changing assortment of streets, parking lots, building exteriors and even interiors, in the case of Allen Fieldhouse.

Some cameras are programmed to pan back and forth regularly, while others remain still unless they’re moved by someone in the control center.

In general, the cameras cover athletic buildings, areas around the Daisy Hill and GSP/Corbin halls, and student parking lots and garages, though more could be installed in the future if money is available. On a recent day, Birdsong demonstrated that a camera high atop Memorial Stadium had the power to zoom in tightly on a man walking near the Walnut Grove, his child and two dogs in tow.

One of KU's new security cameras keeps watch from atop Memorial Stadium.

A group of 20 part-time student employees monitors the cameras during the school year, watching for any suspicious activity. Everything is recorded and stored on DVD, and KU officers come in to review the footage as needed.

To protect privacy, the cameras have been programmed so that the screen goes blank if someone zooms in too tightly on the exterior of a dorm room.

Birdsong said that when plans for the cameras first began, some people voiced concerns about “Big Brother”-like surveillance, but that now she more commonly hears from people who want a camera installed in their part of campus.