BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) More and more school districts are considering upgrades to security in the wake of mass shootings in Buffalo, Uvalde and other cities.
In Western New York, this week and next, educators are learning about
a new touchless weapons detection system by Evolv Technologies.
It's nothing like the metal detection systems you may have seen previously at a courthouse or other venue.
It is a touchless security screening that maintains a free flow of traffic as
people enter a school or public space.
There is no facial recognition software built into the system. It detects weapons and captures an image of the person if something is detected.
There is no database associated with it. It does not scan the face. It purely uses AI, Artificial Intelligence technology, to scan the person that is coming through the sensor.
"You can be holding a cup of coffee, a cell phone and car keys. It doesn't stop the flow of people coming through," said Bill Naab, co-founder of Ink Labs, which has partnered with Evolv Technology.
If it finds something in a person's backpack, back pocket or ankle, it takes an instantaneous picture and snippet of video. The person monitoring the system is alerted to pull the person for a secondary screening. And while that is going on, everybody else is still coming through.
Naab says this technology is already in a number of football stadiums as well as a growing number of schools. There's a good chance that many people have been screened through a similar system, without realizing it.
"Take the case of Niagara Falls City Schools," he said. "Superintendent Dr. Mark Laurrie wanted the system because he said kids were coming into school with emotional and social trauma from Covid. He wanted to bring the kids in safely, without wanding them because it took until second period to get everybody through."
Laurrie had the new detection units installed so that students could walk right through. Naab said the kids didn't mind it at all because the scanner looks like a scanner that you see when you're leaving a retail or drug store.
The systems are not inexpensive. They cost about $80K for a singe lane system. But it can be broken up over four years, at approximately $20K a year.
"It is an initial sticker shock, but there's an awful lot of schools that we've been reading about recently, that would have looked at this and said it would have been worth it," added Naab.
In the case of Niagara Falls City Schools, the district is spending $641K to lease the system that includes all future technology upgrades.
According to Naab, the response from local schools has been overwhelming. "All they are saying is, we don't know if this is a good fit, but we want to learn more. They're taking the information back to their school boards and communities."
evolvtechnology.com
