Can Biometric Technology Create A Safer School Environment?

It's not difficult to look at the last 5 to 10 years and see that we can no longer think of schools as the safe places they once were. School safety has become an increasingly important issue to parents, teachers, and administrators. Certainly technology alone cannot make schools safe but used in conjunction with other prevention programs, technology can help create a safer environment.

Metal detectors and video surveillance systems are increasingly common technologies in schools. To be sure these technologies are helpful but have limitations too. Surveillance cameras can't realistically be expected to cover the entire school building due to prohibitive costs. It would also require a lot of manpower to monitor all the cameras in real-time. If nothing else though, surveillance cameras serve as a symbolic deterrent to students who are reminded they're being watched every time they see a camera.

Biometric Technology

Some schools have turned to biometric technology to create a more safe and secure school environment. Biometric technology uses an individual's unique physical characteristics to verify identity. Commonly used biometrics include fingerprints, retinal scans, facial features, and voice recognition. There are many potential uses for biometric technology but the use with the greatest potential may be in providing access control. This would provide positive identification and an accurate record of individuals as they enter and leave the building.

As with any emerging technology, tremendous advances have been made in the past several years in terms of increased accuracy and decreased cost of biometric systems. In fact, the cost of some biometric systems has dropped to a level that makes it realistic the consider implementing biometric systems in schools.

Another advantage of biometric systems is that an individual carries his or her intrinsic physical characteristics at all times. People don't just lose their fingerprints or irises as they often do security cards and passwords. In addition, cards and passwords can be lost or stolen and used by unauthorized individuals. It's much more difficult to fool a biometric system by using another persons fingerprints, irises, or voice.

Critics point to invasion of privacy issues but a large amount of sensitive personal information is already on record for virtually any student at any school. Biometric systems don't require any student, teacher, or administrator to divulge any more personal information than is already on file. And biometric technology can improve school security. Resistance to change is a natural human tendency but let's look at the larger goal here which is increased safety. There will always be critics of any proposed security system. So what's more important? Trying to please everyone? Or using available technology to create a more safe and secure environment in schools?