The University of Florida will invest $30 million over the coming 5 years to a number of campus security upgrades and refinements as part of a campus wide access control and student safety overhaul.

As reported by local ABC affiliate WCJB, the substantial investment will go towards new security cameras, access control measures, updates to the student ID card, and new license plate readers to be stationed around the Gainesville campus.

To date, UF has deployed 1,000 security cameras around campus, but the new funding will see an additional 1,700 cameras installed over the coming five-year improvement period.

A major aspect of the project is to enhance the security of academic buildings, student dorms, as well as implement enhancements to the Gator 1 ID Card. UF is also plotting renovations to the university's global security operations center, which will enable real-time monitoring of the campus' security systems.

While the effort around access control and security cameras will be improvements to existing measures, the license plate readers will be an entirely new implementation. University officials say that the intention for the license plate readers will be to enable university police more quickly and effectively detect wanted persons or stolen vehicles that may enter the campus perimeter.

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