Should daycare centers be required to use webcams?
EUGENE, Ore. -- For some parents it's the toughest part of the day: dropping your little one off at daycare.
But what if you could check on them without leaving the office?
"The first day I dropped my son off at daycare, I sobbed and sobbed," said Dan Johnston.
But for Johnston, there was one thing that made drop off a bit easier.
"They had webcams and we loved it," he said. "We loved the piece of mind."
Portland police detective Mace Winter specializes in child abuse cases. He wants the state to require licensed day care centers to include a system of webcams, and he cites a study showing the difference the technology can make.
"There was a 23 percent reduction in complaints and injuries in daycares that had a webcam installed," Winter said.
Johnston is now a director at a Eugene child care center. KVAL News asked him what he thought of the webcam study.
"I believe it," he said. "I personally would love to see it mandated."
Security is such a top priority at Portland Street Child Development Center that when parents come to drop off their kids they first have to enter a code on the keypad.
After entering their code, the security doesn't stop there. Parents have to check in using the fingerprint log-in system.
Johnston wants to make the center even more secure.
"We've presented webcams to the families here and we're in the process of getting feedback," he said.
Some child care providers worry about the cost, which could be thousands of dollars depending on the system and size of the daycare.
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"Do you take it out of teachers salaries, do you make parents pay more?" asked Heather Clark, owner of Play Dates Child Care Center. "And with this economy, parents can barely afford what we charge now.
Clark also worries about privacy.
"I have children here and I wouldn't want their faces all over the Internet," she said.
