A-State improves security

Jonesboro, Arkansas – Basketball is coming up, and a new football season has begun. Arkansas State University is concerned for the security of spectators that come to support the red wolves.

“We work extremely hard to have a community policing model on campus and then back that up with a lot of monitoring,” said Bill Smith, Chief Communications Officer at Arkansas State.

Thanks to a campus security fee charged by the university, Arkansas State upgraded the campus’ security over the summer. They are visible all throughout campus, not only at the locations where spectators cheer.

“We now have a significant number of additional video monitoring stations on the perimeter of campus so that we can have a better idea of who is coming on and off campus both in vehicles and on foot,” he said.

On its campus, the university has more than 1,000 cameras, and it intends to install more in the future.

Each location’s security may appear slightly different. While they are not present at Centennial Bank Stadium or Tomlinson Stadium, metal detectors are present at First National Bank Arena.

“The nature of the concerts and the other events that are happening in there and it’s an indoor venue they would have the magnetometers, where in football because it’s an outdoor venue as well as Tomlinson Stadium,” he said.

People only need to make sure their bags are clear or small enough for the outdoor settings, according to Smith, who also noted that the institution abides by the NCAA’s and the Sun Belt Conference’s rules in this regard.

“That’s one of the best deterrents for having problems getting inside of the venue, is by having a good search policy at the perimeter and then to have a clear bag policy,” he said.