Report shows vandalism down in Ridgewood schools
Tuesday October 29, 2013, 10:15 AM
BY LAURA HERZOG
STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood News
While the annual numbers of reported incidents involving violence, weapons and substance abuse in Ridgewood schools have remained somewhat consistent since 2002, incidents of vandalism have decreased greatly.
Board of Education (BOE) President Sheila Brogan last week speculated that the drop in vandalism might be attributed to the installation of visible security cameras in the schools several years ago.
Based on the district’s mandated data collection for the state’s Electronic Violence and Vandalism Reporting System (EVVRS), from 2002-2003 to 2003-2004, incidents of vandalism decreased from 71 to 14 incidents.
Superintendent Daniel Fishbein said that cameras, which were installed about 10 years ago, are not central to Ridgewood’s ongoing security strategy to improve school safety, but they might have something to do with the drop in total reported incidents.
In the 2002-2003 school year, the district reported 71 total incidents of vandalism on school grounds – and only reported one incident last school year. In total, 103 “incidents” of vandalism, violence, weapons and substance abuse were reported in Ridgewood eleven years ago, versus 33 last year.
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Thanks for sharing this story on cameras and vandalism control.
Follow up might be,
Who paid for them etc, wasn’t there an offer some time back to buy cameras (at no cost) ……….. Some for downtown….
Stay well all……….
I’m sure glad we spent all of that money to stem the rampant vandalism problem at RW schools.
What exactly are the raw numbers for incidents involving violence, weapons and substance abuse anyway? I’m sure they’re epidemic as well…
The incidents are not by any measure epidemic.
exactly…