With over 50 school shootings in the United States this year, schools are looking to enhance safety and security by implementing biometric systems. ROC has extended the capabilities of its Watch system, which is designed to identify potential threats and notify school authorities.
The Department of Justice has awarded over $1 million in funding to five Ohio districts, including Weathersfield Local School District, Lorain Schools, Edison Local School District, Worthington City School District, and Promise Academy.
Lynchburg City Schools is introducing identiMetrics’ fingerprint scanning technology to accelerate lunch lines in an effort to facilitate school operations.
ROC Watch detects weapons and registered offenders
ROC has developed ROC Watch, a system capable of detecting potential threats and alerting school officials in real time. It utilizes facial recognition, license plate recognition, and suspicious object and weapons detection.
The system is undergoing testing and deployment in several counties in West Virginia, including Harrison, Clay, Putnam, Doddridge, and Marion. According to the company, the system has successfully identified threats, such as detecting registered sex offenders in Marion County.
ROC Watch can be configured to utilize a preloaded list of sex offenders from the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction or any other specified screening criteria. The database is particularly important for systems that will use biometric face biometrics.
“Any list that can be populated can be put into the software,” Cheeseman said. “So, it will alert county schools, secretaries, and the front office as to who is at the front door,” Adam Cheeseman, director of School Safety for ROC Watch, told MetroNews in an interview.
The system can be configured in different ways based on the requirements and limitations of the school. In certain instances, privacy concerns may lead the school to implement only the weapons detection feature without facial recognition. ROC Watch also serves administrative purposes, such as monitoring entries and exits, and managing visitor access.
DOJ funding to improve school safety through biometrics
In the Weathersfield Local School District, the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) School Violence Prevention Program, under the Department of Justice, has allocated $38,940 in funding. This award aims to enhance school safety by implementing advanced security systems utilizing biometrics.
The funds will be used to upgrade outdated cameras to leverage facial recognition. Additionally, the district intends to replace traditional outdoor locks on school buildings with a biometric system, the Tribune Chronicle reports.
Other Ohio districts benefiting from this funding include Lorain Schools, Edison Local School District, Worthington City School District, and Promise Academy. Collectively, these five districts have received over $1 million in funding from the COPS program.
identiMetrics speeds up lunch lines in Lynchburg Schools
In Virginia, the Lynchburg City Schools have implemented identiMetrics‘ fingerprint scanning technology for student identification to accelerate the lunch process. The system is being rolled out at Bass, Bedford Hills, and Perrymont Elementary Schools.
“The primary aim is to enable a faster check-in process by replacing traditional ID card methods with fingerprint scanning. When students scan their fingers, the system retrieves their lunch account information,” WSET ABC 13 reports.
During subsequent visits to the dining hall, students need to place their fingers on the scanner, and the system will match the biometric data points to access the student’s account information. To ensure privacy, the school has emphasized that the biometric data is not stored as an image but as a mathematical representation of key points on the finger.
“The principals there had actually reached out because they had challenges with their lunch lines. It took a long time for those students to get through those lines. The students were having difficulty remembering their lunch code. With those three schools, this is just a pilot program,” says John Collins, director of Information Technology for Lynchburg City Schools.
Article Topics
biometric identification | biometrics | facial recognition | fingerprint biometrics | Identimetrics | ROC | school security | schools | United States
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