HOUSTON — Fort Bend ISD says they are starting to look at ways to improve their security as school shootings continue to occur across the nation.
And now some of the options their committee is exploring could even include the use of facial recognition technology.
It’s a quick scan of the face, a smile to the camera. Facial recognition software just might be the newest hall monitor for Fort Bend ISD.
“We can proactively respond to something instead of waiting for that person to act out on a campus," said Fort Bend ISD Police Chief David Rider.
Chief Rider first brought up the technology at a June school board meeting.
“If somebody makes a threat in the community, we can plug the face in. If they pass in front of any of our cameras, it would give us an alert right away," Rider said during the meeting.
He says it’s one of the many options they’re exploring, including better door locks, adding more officers, implementing ID badges, creating a reporting platform, and even arming teachers.
“We’re looking at a multi-layered approach, just like we have now, we’re just looking to add more layers to that security," Chief Rider said.
If it’s chosen, Fort Bend will be the first Houston area school district with this state-of-the-art screening.
It’s the same sort of software one Seattle company is offering up to school districts across the country – for free.
“We think that’s going to enhance the security of schools but also lead to more convenience, a simple way of entering a school campus," RealNetworks Chief Technology Officer Reza Rassool said.
Chief Rider says he’s not sure they’d take up that offer. He says he would want to look at all the software out there and pick the one best fitted for Fort Bend.
“We would have to figure out, okay what software do we use, how do we implement it, how do we put the images in, how do we capture that, who does it get reported to. There are a number of pieces that go into that that we haven’t explored yet," Chief Rider said.
What they hope though is that it would be an easy update to the more than 5,000 cameras already installed on their 79 campuses. Those came online as part of their latest rounds of renovations with help from their 2014 bond.
The next step is for the committee to reach their final recommendations and present them to the board in August.
Some of those would call for capital funding so the committee would be asking for a bond election in November.