An educational environment conducive to learning requires at the minimum to keep school children safe and secure; however, given the wide range of sizes and types of educational institutions, it’s easier said than done. High-profile violence in educational environments highlights the urgency for the security and safety systems, where challenges extend beyond preventing the active shooter incidents that grab headlines. In the United States, 79% of public schools recorded one or more incidents of violence, theft or other crimes, calculating to 1.4 million crimes a year. That translates to a rate of 29 crimes per 1,000 students. Security is a 24-hour challenge. Protecting schools involves deployment of a range of security and physical hardening tools. Reducing risk requires access to school buildings be controlled, while also preserving an ‘open’ campus atmosphere that promotes learning environment. Schools should be an inviting place for students and families, and so technology solutions aimed at restricting access should be low-profile and unobtrusive. School security must also be designed in layers, or there should be concentric circles of protection, starting at the school’s perimeter and working inward to secure individual classrooms and other internal areas. How technology helps Video surveillance technology can promote security right from the beginning i.e., at the outermost boundaries, at the perimeter and within the boundaries of the school environments. Surveillance keeps a silent but constant watch on people who come and go. Artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning technologies are further increasing the capabilities of real-time video surveillance to provide early warning of a possible security threat as a person enters the campus. AI and deep learning analyze the content of video feeds and provide usable information to the security personnel including analysis of trends and real-time alarms when an event takes place. In addition to controlling perimeter access, AI based video surveillance also keeps watch on a school campus even before and after school time, and even on weekends when extra-curricular activities may be taking place. The systems monitor and help control traffic flow to ensure that only authorized vehicles enter an area. The AI-driven video systems also enable greater effectiveness to the systems that are not being monitored actively. Video feeds are analyzed in real-time and alarms can be raised only if there is a problem. Use case: Controlling illegal parking and restricted areas at schools Whenever a vehicle passes into a restricted area in a school campus, the video system captures vehicle image and automatically provides significant data. Automated number plate recognition (ANPR) systems identify the license numbers of cars, match the numbers to a watch list and provide alarms, if required. The technology can also be used to monitor compliance within restricted areas – for example, to allow only those vehicles that are registered for a parking lot. Video systems with illegal parking detection can define a zone for no parking at a school. With vehicles entering the no parking area, the cameras are triggered to collect evidence – images of illegally parked vehicles are captured, and the system becomes able to provide data including the vehicle plate number and when and where the parking violation occurred. Use case: Controlling ‘buses only’ and restricted areas Traffic cameras with deep learning technology can identify and classify vehicles to differentiate between small and large vehicles. It can also detect a vehicle’s make, model and colour. Thus, today it is possible to differentiate between cars and buses in ‘buses only’ areas. The system can also capture images and produce alarm if a vehicle is driven in wrong direction – for instance into an exit-only lane, or the wrong way on a roadway. Currently such cameras are more commonly deployed on public streets and highways. Use case: Facial recognition at school entrances Facial recognition is used at the school entrances and gates, as well as inside the school buildings to promote the security of students. A facial recognition terminal installed at the entrance of a campus building or library can be configured to ensure that only registered students and staff have access to the buildings. People-counting cameras used in cafeterias and libraries provide daily or monthly traffic reports that help better understand peak times and arrange workflow accordingly. Clarity is paramount when identifying faces, and cameras that provide wide dynamic range (WDR) can offset challenges such as backlighting on a bright day when the light behind a person coming in is brighter than the ambient light inside. Unified solution combines various applications Feeds from all cameras can be managed, monitored and stored in an authorised security center, either located on the campus or in a central location that combines camera feeds from multiple campuses in a school district, for example. In general, security staff can access surveillance data in a variety of ways – via a desktop, laptop or mobile device. Such flexibility makes the job of security personnel easier. Campus police or resource officer can view the video on a mobile device while patrolling the campus. Often video surveillance systems at schools are not monitored well. School security personnel have more pressing duties than sitting in front of a video monitor, and therefore it is difficult for operators to stay alert for detailed incidents that may be shown on the screen. Tedious and error-prone manual monitoring can now be replaced by more intelligent systems that provide alarms only when there is something to see. A defence line for safer learning environment Systems to maximize school surveillance and security include dedicated, high-performance cameras for event capture, embedded network video recorder for event recording and storage, and a centralized video management platform to unify the system. AI and deep learning technologies automate security processes and provide useful real-time information that extends beyond video images. Deploying these technologies at the perimeter can promote better security campus-wide by preventing danger from entering the learning environment.
