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Close circuit video and acoustic surveillance will
both deter criminal activity, and aide in the apprehension and
prosecution when necessary. The obvious need for privacy
dictates certain limitation in its use and placement.
Note: Consider low cost {<$100} wireless
CCTV cameras with motion detection. They install easily and
generate brief images
files sent via email. .
TYPES OF SURVEILLANCE
Dummy Cameras - act as deterrent
CCTV external (to restroom),
record only - video
viewed only if needed for investigation.
CCTV external, monitor only - Security staff detect
misuse as it occurs.
CCTV external, record & monitor
Video' block image' monitors - Low Image resolution protects
privacy while still provide enough detail to alert to criminal activity
Passive Ultrasonic Sensors - detect brakeage but not
conversation. Might not detect calls for help.
Motion Sensors - detects usage or can be set to detect only those
quick motions associated with misuse
Video lavatory, record only
Video lavatory, monitor only
Video lavatory, record & monitor
Acoustic Sensors - detect brakeage and calls for help
Note: Lavatory is the hand washing
area
LEGALLY APPROVED WARNING
SIGNS
PROTECT PRIVACY AND ACT AS A DETERRENT
ENTRIES AND EXITS TO PUBLIC RESTROOMS
To improve security particularly for women, entrances
to toilet facilities should be located where a clear site-line
exist to high traffic
public area's.
A labyrinth entrances directly along major
traffic corridors provide both the 'sense of' and actual security.
Worse-case configuration have restrooms at the end of long corridor's
where users have no acoustic or visual site-line to a high person
traffic area
CUSTOMER LOCKED RESTROOMS
Everyone understands the reasons for locks on stalls.
Locks on the outside door to the full restroom, however, significantly impact the
availability of the facility. An unlocked facility may find a
person in a stall while another is washing, and a third is using a hand
dryer. This same situation in a locked room would have 2 people
waiting outside. Locked rooms also increase misuse, such as
longer employee smoke breaks, that further increase the likelihood of
queuing.
STALL DOORS
There should be no outside latches that could be used
to lock a person in a stall
RESTROOM DOORS
Labyrinth entrances
(door-less) avoid the problem of an outward swinging door hitting
someone. With no door opening to give warning of possible
visit by security personnel labyrinth design is less conducive to
unwanted activity. Additionally, the sound signature of criminal
activity is more likely to be detected when no doors exist. (see
also LOCKS)
CEILINGS
Open ceilings or a ceiling with ventilation provide a
conduit for sound. Some sound dampening is necessary to assure
privacy but the knowledge that a call for help can be heard reduces
apprehension of both the occupant and a waiting parent or opposite sex
care-provider.
DOOR HANDLES
Where paper towels are present many will use a piece
of towel to grip the handle. Some littering of the restroom floors
can reduced by recognizing this smart practice and providing trash
receptacles close to the exit.
DOOR & MIRRORS SIGHT LINES
Thoughtlessly placed mirrors may provide a sight-line
into areas where privacy was intended, for example the unshielded
urinals in the men's room. In some case poorly placed toilet
fixtures can be viewed directly. Thoughtfully placed mirrors can
increase security, especially in Women's Restrooms, by allowing a line
of sight from the entrance to the back of the restroom.
The worse situation is an external restroom door with
internal slide locks. They provide no mechanism for building
management to intervene when an occupant fails to respond after an
excessive period of usage. (see also DOORS)
Portable Sanitation Units often have outside latches
that accommodate a pad lock. A child with a small stick can easily
'imprison' an occupant.
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'OTHER VOICES'
"Detectives were successful in catching some drug activity that was captured
... ...on the camera positioned outside the restroom
...
The Saginaw News MI 2/22/07
________________
Student facing expulsion... ...When the student was questioned
... claimed he had mistakenly entered the wrong restroom ... video
clearly showed the student exiting the men’s restroom and then entering the women’s
restroom. Later, the teacher is seen leaving the women’s restroom and then the
student is seen running from the women’s
restroom.... Massillon
Independent OH 4/5/07
________________
Surveillance
cameras ... at Strawberry Lake Park in Norway Mich, officials
say, the cameras are legal.. The cameras are not in the stalls of the rest
rooms.
WLUC-TV Negaunee,MI
6/19/06
________________
...In what may be the future of
high-traffic buildings in America, the architecturally inventive library
on Nicollet Mall has installed surveillance cameras in its most frequented
restrooms. The ceiling-embedded cameras do not
videotape stalls or urinals, but they capture patrons as they
head for the sinks and hand dryers.
SMILE, BOOK
LOVERS TwinCities Pioneer
Press - St. Paul,MN 9/23/06
________________
...The escort policy is soon to be
discontinued, and other options are more effective anyway: Investing
in cameras to monitor bathroom entrances
would minimize vandalism and identify the threat makers...
Salem OR
Statesman Journal 'Heavy school security is an ineffective quick fix'
11/22/06
________________
... The students who set the fires were
caught through video surveillance
...
All Headline News Corp
'High School Students Walked To Bathroom' 11/6/2006
________________
As written, the ordinance would make it illegal to beg for money within 15 feet of ATMs,
public bathrooms, pay phones, businesses and several other places.
GA. Macon
Telegraph 12/06/06
________________
Woman sentenced in crack case - A LaPorte
woman was sentenced for locking herself in a service
station restroom for two hours and
smoking crack cocaine.
South Bend (IN)
Tribune
2/27/07
________________
...an infrared detection system became available to record employees' restroom habits. Sensors could record and indicate when a person entered a
restroom, and whether they stopped at the sink for at least 15 seconds to wash their hands, and even whether they used soap...
Redding, CA The
Record Searchlight 5/20/07
Around the corner, the public toilets have
blue lights. This is a pragmatic Swiss solution for preventing needle junkies from using that space for shooting up: Under the
blue lights, they can't see their veins.
Dallas Morning News, Inc 8/5/09
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