Page 68 - Security Today, June 2018

COVER STORY
Glacer described an access control system he saw on day one of the show that allowed school administration to assign a barcode to each person in the building. The system would help track those coming in and out of certain areas and even keep someone from entering an area they were not authorized to access.
“I don’t know what is keeping schools from finding these solutions,” Glacer admitted. “I think a lot of schools are thinking, ‘It is never going to happen to us,’ and are implementing solutions that bring a false sense of security.”
When asked what solution he felt would make him feel more pro- tected at school he mentioned metal detectors.
“Personally, I like the idea of metal detectors,” Glacer said. “I like knowing what everyone is bringing in and knowing that nothing bad is coming into the school.”
Glacer spoke of the fine line that schools have to balance when implementing security plans on their campuses so that the school still feels like an open, free-flowing educational facility and not a locked- down, prison-like atmosphere.
“Do you want to feel safe?” Glacer asked rhetorically of those who do not agree with security solutions such as metal detectors in schools. “What other option is there? [Metal detectors] don’t get in the way of my education.”
After three full days at ISC West, Glacer now knows that there are definitely more options than just metal detectors.
IDENTIFYING SOLUTIONS THAT WORK
During his time at ISC West, Glacer met with many companies, saw several product demonstrations and had insightful and thought-pro-
voking conversations with security integrators and manufacturers. There were a few products and conversations that really stood out to him, including the Sielox AnyWare web application.
“I really liked what Sielox had to show me,” Glacer said. “The web application assigns an operator to the school who can oversee all the teachers at the school. The teachers have access to the program and can alert the operator if there is a fight in the classroom or a bigger issue, like a Code Red.”
A Code Red at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is a lockdown situation where only the police are allowed to move about the campus.
“If there is a Code Red, then the operator can alert all the teachers in the entire school in a matter of seconds,” Glacer said. “In my situa- tion, it would have saved lives.”
Glacer also really liked Avigilon’s Anomaly Detection Software, which notifies users when items, events or objects that do not conform to an expected pattern happen in the view of the camera. He described the software as “overkill” for schools, but thought the overall solution was interesting and hopes to find solutions similar to these to bring back to campus with him.
In addition to the solutions he saw, Glacer also had several conver- sations with campus security solution providers about how they could tackle certain issues, like the difficulty of balancing fire safety codes with active shooter protocols and ensuring proper training for security solutions.
“It felt like I was bringing up issues that these companies hadn’t really thought of before,” Glacer said. “For instance, we talked with a camera company about training, not hardware or anything but train- ing. It seems that people don’t know exactly what to do protocol-wise
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CAMPUS SECURITY & LIFE SAFETY