The superintendent of schools and chief of the New Canaan Police Department said Friday that they’ve reached “a conceptual agreement” that will give authorities access to school security video.
That agreement will be put into a formal document for review by the district and NCPD, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi and Police Chief Leon Krolikowski said in an email to the press.
“The conceptual agreement ensures that police department officials will have immediate access to school security cameras in the event of an emergency,” they said.
It isn’t clear whether police will have continuous access to interior cameras at the schools, rather than access through some type of login—a process that Krolikowski has described as problematic in the event of an emergency. Luizzi has cited the need to honor student privacy rights under the Federal Education Rights and Privacy Act, a law
that gives parents certain protections with regard to their children’s education records, including school security videos.
If approved, the agreement will settle a question regarding police access to the interior cameras that has been open for more than two years and that popped up recently among members of the town-appointed commission that oversees NCPD. Police Commission member Paul Foley said last month during a regular meeting of the group that he was frustrated that talks about access to the cameras had stalled. At this month’s meeting, officials said that those talks had restarted.