School board officials in Marion County, West Virginia, have approved piloting a facial recognition security system.
The live facial recognition technology is supposedly to help with “threat detection” and “visitor management” in schools.
Rank One Computing CEO Scott Swann, a West Virginia native, made a presentation before the board to explain how the software could keep schools “safe,” reported WDTV.
“A visitor entry solution, where we could help automate some of the visitor entry to schools and ensure that the people that are coming to schools should be there,” Swann said.
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He explained that schools would upload data into the system and a watchlist of people who should not be allowed in schools would be created with help from local law enforcement.
School board Superintendent Dr. Donna Hage said that the software would help keep schools safe and is less intrusive than alternatives like metal detectors.
“That would be less intrusive than perhaps metal detectors. It would give us that security that we need at the entrance of our facilities, as well as the parking lots of our facilities,” she said.
Hage noted that schools already have cameras: “So we could utilize the camera systems that are in our schools. It becomes another layer of protection that we have on our campuses and in our schools.”
Swann said that the plan is to start in West Virginia and eventually roll out the system nationwide.
