The UP Accommodation and Dining Services is boosting the monitoring of selected areas by installing security cameras at the 17. listopadu dormitory. This is one of the measures in the effort to enhance and ensure the safety of residents and discourage unauthorised movement of people in the dormitory building. The camera system fully complies with the applicable requirements for placement and operation of a monitoring system with recording facility, ensuring maximum consideration for the housed students. The cameras will be put into operation on 14 June.
The entire process of preparation, installation and careful setup of the security cameras in manner to minimize inconvenience to residence hall users encompassed several weeks.
"This is one of the necessary and acceptable measures that will help us to increase the safety of our residential students and to protect the property of our university. We do not want to completely close ourselves off through entrance turnstiles and similar more radical measures, but it is desirable to respond in this way to the current problems with trespassing, vandalism and the like," explained Libor Kolář, Director of Accommodation and Dining Services.
"We are aware that there are differences among our residents in their perception of an ideal or necessary security of the dormitories; thus, we have opted for a monitoring system of the premises with security cameras placed as visibly as possible to the residents," he added, citing that some cameras, for example, have the rest area occluded in the shot and in the case of cameras monitoring the corridors, the view of entrances to the student rooms have been blocked such that no recording of the inner parts of a room is possible when the door is open.
Installation of the cameras in the dormitory was materialised in conjunction with the department responsible for personal data protection at UP. "The system was consulted with the aim of setting it up in accordance with the university's internal standards and the methodology of the Office for Personal Data Protection for operating camera systems," said Martin Tomášek, Chancellor of University. The entrance to all areas that are scanned by cameras is labelled with information on the operation of the camera system.
The camera recordings shall be archived for a period of five days. "This is the minimum interval that takes into account, for example, weekends or public holidays when dealing with or detecting a possible incident," explained director Kolář. Only authorised persons will have access to the camera recordings in accordance with the internal standards of the UP Operation of Camera Systems at Palacký University in Olomouc.
The dormitory camera systems are also used to check compliance with the prescribed procedures pertaining to fire protection; this simply means that in the event of an incident, it is possible to quickly identify smoke in any part of the building, check that escape exits are not obstructed, etc.
For information on the processing of personal data via cameras at the 17. listopadu dormitory, please refer to this document.