That feeling of being watched when no one’s there might be more common as Missouri Southern’s daily life will soon be available with instant replay.

In the selection process, new Pan-Tilt-Zoom cameras will be placed around Southern.

“The goal of these cameras is to better enhance the security presence on campus,” said Craig Richardson, director of the division of fire safety/environment with the Department of Public Safety.

The DPS predicts the bidding process will be completed within a few weeks.

“Once complete, within the 30 to 60 days after that, the new system will be up and running,” Richardson said.

These cameras will be “strategically” placed around Southern, making 90 percent of the campus viewable to the department.

“These cameras will have an instantaneous feed,” said Ken Kennedy, manager of the DPS. “The images will be recorded digitally on a computer hard drive.”

The capabilities of these cameras are in the name.

They can pan 360 degrees, which means they can rotate in a complete circle.

They can tilt 180 degrees, which means the lens can move 180 degrees from one point on the camera to another.

They can also focus and zoom on an object from five feet to 500 feet away.

Kennedy said they would be able to review incidents a month after they occur.

“Not only that, but because they are capable of an instantaneous feed to a monitor, the dispatcher will be able to react to any and all suspicious activity as it is happening,” Kennedy said.

The cameras will enable security to view all areas on campus 24 hours a day, seven days a week even when the department is not at full staff.

Richardson said obtaining the security system has been an ongoing project but the rise of certain criminal activity has prompted the process.

He said with crimes on campus such as the “tunnel incident,” in which Paul McMillan, freshman mass communications major and staff writer for The Chart, was robbed at gun point.

Richardson also cited other reasons for the integration of the system.

“There are more people and more night classes on campus,” Richardson said. “With the larger presence of people on campus it just helps [DPS] to have this kind of a system on campus.”

Kennedy said the cameras would be able to stop crime before it occurs.

“We want students to be aware that they’re being watched,” he said. “These cameras will act as a deterrent to those who may have criminal intent.”

Security cameras are no strangers to Southern.

As of now, there are cameras placed in the bookstore, the machine tech area, along with other areas with “certain criteria” that require surveillance.

The current systems will be integrated with the new as soon as it comes online.

Though these cameras will be watching students and their actions, security wants to make it clear that this isn’t a big brother situation, Kennedy said.

The security office hopes that this will be another tool to make the department all the more “professional.”

“This system is something that’s been needed for a long time,” Kennedy said.