Sheriff’s Office has real-time access to Vermilion Parish School System cameras

When it comes to student safety, officials with the Vermilion Parish School System and Vermilion Parish Sheriff’s Office review every possible angle.
That is now literally the case thanks to an enhanced partnership between the two entities. Vermilion Parish Superintendent Tommy Byler and Vermilion Parish Sheriff Eddie Langlinais announced that the sheriff’s office will have real-time camera access to all schools across Vermilion Parish.
“We have partnered with the Vermilion Parish School System for the safety of our community and the safety of our kids,” Langlinais said. “They have allowed the sheriff’s office access to the cameras within their schools, which will be better for response time and investigations when responding to an incident. We will be able to respond directly to where the incident is happening.”
Byler said this creates another level of safety for the schools.
“There is a time element,” Byler said. “They are not waiting for us to get them into the camera system in the case of a crisis. In the case of a crisis, they now have access, and the communication with their people is immediate. This is one of those things that we hope we never have to use, but in the event we have to, this just helps the safety and response time for our students and our faculty.
“It’s another step up in safety.”
The access is not limited to school campuses. The sheriff’s office can also access cameras at the school system’s central office at 220 S. Jefferson St. in Abbeville as well as maintenance and other sites.
“Wherever we have cameras,” said Brooks David, the school system’s safety officer, “the sheriff’s office has access.”
This marks another step in the working relationship between the two entities. That includes the sheriff’s office making more resource officers available on campuses.
“Superintendent Byler said, this is an added layer of security that we can give them,” Langlinais said.
Byler pointed out that members of the sheriff’s office will not be sitting and watching every moment of a school day.
“This is for a crisis or if we call to see if we can get another pair of eyes,” Byler said. “We have mechanisms in place for auditing purposes. This is not them sitting there to get anyone. In the that we need it, the capability is there.
“That’s where people should feel safe about it.”
David said the sheriff’s office and school system are also working side by side with the schools through the new emergency management system, the Raptor Alert System.
“The sheriff’s office does have access to it,” David said. “If a crisis kicks off at a school, they automatically know about it.”
Vermilion Parish Sheriff’s Office Lt. Marcus Hebert, who serves as supervisor of the schools resource officers, said that the sheriff’s office also has mobile camera trailer that can be placed at schools for sporting events and other activities.
“We can monitor those in our Real Time Crime Center,” Hebert said. “We used them at the (Gueydan) Duck Festival. There was something happening in the parking lot, and we were able to respond and handle the incident.”
Langlinais, who took office in July of 2024, said the goal is to constantly be looking for ways to improve safety, including utilizing technology.
“We realized how much we did during our first six months,” Langlinais said, “which was almost everything on my bucket list. We started to come up with other ideas on how to make Vermilion Parish safer and better. We didn’t have things like this when I started my career back in 1981. I see the value and the asset it can be for law enforcement toward the safety of our community.”
Byler, who became superintendent in ‘20, said the school system is always looking for ways to increase safety. Byler said the school system’s crisis plan is now “multiplied.”
“We made a commitment to hire a district safety officer,” Byler said. “Part of that commitment was looking at the next step. Thus, the Raptor app. Brooks took that and ran with it. There is ongoing communication with resource officers. We are trying to centralize what we are doing. The pieces have been there, and this brings it all together.
“This takes it to another level.”