Four school boards in West Virginia have announced that they will install facial recognition technology provided by Rank One Computing.
Speaking to West Virginia Public Broadcasting, the state’s Department of Education director of preK-12, Jonah Adkins, said that the system would allow school boards to create their own databases, which will be stored locally on servers located at the schools.
The technology is being installed by the school boards of Putnam, Taylor, Marion, and Doddridge counties.
ROC has been trialing the technology at the West Fairmont Middle School.
Rather than deploy armed protection in schools, in response to school shootings, schools have been considering facial recognition-enabled surveillance systems.
Facial recognition technology provider Oosto announced a partnership with the ZeroNow alliance, an organization committed to ending school shootings.
“More and more schools are turning to facial recognition to better protect their students and staff by identifying persons of interest in real-time – enabling schools to quickly respond to potential threats and prevent incidents before they occur,” said Oosto Chief Marketing Officer Dean Nicolls. “Being part of the ZeroNow alliance will allow us to collaborate with peers in industry and education who are similarly dedicated to protecting schools.”
