{"id":183385,"date":"2026-05-04T11:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T11:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/183385\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T11:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T11:24:10","slug":"east-lansdowne-equips-crossing-guards-with-body-cameras","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/183385\/","title":{"rendered":"East Lansdowne equips crossing guards with body cameras"},"content":{"rendered":"

Body worn cameras are empowering crossing guards to better protect the children in East Lansdowne.<\/p>\n

The East Lansdowne Police Department announced last week that they have equipped their five guards who protect students at two elementary schools in the community \u2014 Vision Academy Charter School, which has 3,000 students, and East Lansdowne Elementary School with 286 students \u2014 with the cameras.<\/p>\n

Police Chief James Cadden said this is the first department in the area, to his knowledge, to issue the cameras to crossing guards.<\/p>\n

\"EastEast Lansdowne crossing guards now have body worn cameras. (COURTESY PHOTO)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe inspiration was the constant issue of complaints of guards being harassed,\u201d Cadden said. \u201cThe BWCs being issued to the crossing guards is part of a multi-layered approach to public safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking together with increased high visibility uniformed police patrols; a few dozen artificial intelligence-driven cameras mounted throughout the town, specifically at some of the school crossings; training and supervision for the crossing guards; allows us to respond effectively to any incident that has taken place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cadden said that in the past, if a crossing guard encountered a disruptive or threatening driver while crossing kids, they would have to finish crossing the kids and get them to safety, then take out their cellphone and call 911 and then the police would be dispatched and respond.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the vast overwhelming majority of cases, by the time the police get there, the vehicle\/person is<\/p>\n

\"TheThe East Lansdowne Police Department has equipped their five crossing guards, including Albert Gilliard, above, with body cameras. Gilliard works the Emerson Avenue and Penn Boulevard intersection, down the street from Vision Charter School. (PETE BANNAN-DAILY TIMES)<\/p>\n

gone and the crossing guard is so shaken by the incident that the description they provide is rarely useful,\u201d he said. \u201cThe BWCs empower the crossing guards by acting as a deterrent and allowing for accurate documentation of any dangerous or illegal events that would endanger them or the kids they are trying to protect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cadden said guards are cursed, threatened and one even had a gun pulled on him.<\/p>\n

In March, a Philadelphia man was charged with punching a Darby crossing guard.<\/a> Cadden noted that Darby police along with the U.S. Marshalls Service did a good job of finding video of the incident and tracking down the suspect.<\/p>\n

Crossing guard Albert Gilliard, 69, who has been at the job in East Lansdowne for the past three years has seen it all.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey run right through here, threaten me, they don\u2019t care. They run through barricades and want to fight,\u201d Gilliard said shortly before the afternoon pick up began near Vision Charter Academy. \u201cI\u2019m too old to fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cadden said that with a body camera, law enforcement will be better able to identify the vehicle involved as well as hear the interaction with the crossing guard.<\/p>\n

The crossing guard can\u2019t review the videos. The video goes to the cloud. They can also take it into the station and dock it with a computer.<\/p>\n

Cadden said the cameras are the same as those issued to police officers.<\/p>\n

Crossing Guards in East Lansdowne are all local residents who receive Safe Corridors training.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou would think it would be simple, but there are a lot of ways you can get hurt, get the kids hurt,\u201d the chief said. \u201cMisinterpreted hand signals to cars, things like that. It\u2019s important they have the training and knowledge \u2026 and supervision. We want to give them all the tools and training so they can do their jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cadden said the camera offers the guards a sense of protection, and that the public knows they have them can be a deterrent factor.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet the public know you are going to be recorded,\u201d he said. \u201cNow we have real-time video footage with AI helping us isolate that vehicle, locate it and track it through our town.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said violators can face thousands of dollars in tickets.<\/p>\n

The camera is always recording. Pressing the button saves the recording, including the prior 30 seconds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey buffer backwards,\u201d Cadden said. \u201cIt will grab 30 seconds to a minute before the button is pushed, depending how they are set.<\/p>\n

Gilliard said the new camera will help make him and the children safer.<\/p>\n

\"AlbertAlbert Gilliard with his body worn camera. Gilliard, who has worked as a crossing guard in East Lansdowne for the past three years, said he has experienced run-ins with motorists who are annoyed at having to stop. (PETE BANNAN-DAILY TIMES)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe children are good. It\u2019s about respect. You respect them, they respect you. But you\u2019ve got to say what you mean and mean what you say,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s about how you talk to them.<\/p>\n

Cadden said the borough codes enforcement officer, another employee that can face stressful situations, has also been assigned a body-worn camera.<\/p>\n

The chief said that in a small community such as East Lansdowne they have the ability to experiment with initiatives such as this where financially the expense is not as large as in more populated communities. And much of the cost for the cameras was paid for through a number of grants the borough has received.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of it is regulated by policy, regulation and training. We didn\u2019t just buy toys and hand them out,\u201d Cadden said. \u201cWe worked with our solicitor to get a nice comprehensive policy and training oversight in place. I think overall it has had an impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other developments for police, East Lansdowne is also in the final stages of getting PLEAC certification, which Cadden said has been a lot of work but great.<\/p>\n

In April Clifton Heights police became the 17th department in Delaware County to be PLEAC accredited. The others are Eddystone, Brookhaven, Tinicum, Lansdowne, Yeadon, Delaware County Sheriffs, Delaware County CID, Newtown, Haverford, Marple, Radnor, Upper Darby, Upper Chichester, Springfield, Media and Nether Providence.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if we fail, which we won\u2019t, we\u2019re a hundred times better than we were before. Just the process of rewriting our policy manuals, training, guidance, supervision and oversight, we\u2019re leaps and bounds ahead of where we were before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cadden expressed his thanks for support from elected officials and the residents who have been supportive of the technology initiatives.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe like to think we\u2019re leading the way but at the end of the day, we\u2019re responsive to the residents,\u201d Cadden said.<\/p>\n

\"CrossingCrossing guards man key intersections are peak pedestrian times. (PETE BANNAN-DAILY TIMES)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Body worn cameras are empowering crossing guards to better protect the children in East Lansdowne. The East Lansdowne…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[202,212,56103,182,139,28,69,71,70,210],"class_list":["post-183385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-delaware-county","tag-east-lansdowne","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-top-stories-dtd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}