Page 78 - Security Today, July/August 2024

COVER STORY: ACCESS CONTROL
“ANOTHER LEVEL OF ACCESS CONTROL THAT’S BECOME INCREASINGLY INTEGRAL PERTAINS TO PACKAGE DELIVERY. THAT’S WHY SMART DELIVERY LOCKERS ARE NOW BEING INCORPORATED INTO RESIDENCE HALLS, LIBRARIES, AND STUDENT STORES.”
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are still quite a few schools catching up on these vital upgrades.
While a new Tier 1 requirement states that “classroom doors should be closed and locked when occupied”, this isn’t always easy to stay on top of manually due to students coming and going and other distractions during the day. Subsequently, more K-12 districts are deploying EAC at the classroom opening, which automatically locks the door upon closing while still allowing free egress. Cost-effective Wi-Fi and wireless EAC solutions are making the adoption more feasible.
Some schools are even programming an available button on the classroom side of EAC locks that can be pressed to signal a duress or lockdown situation. This capability, along with panic buttons worn
by faculty and staff, helps ensure there are multiple ways to send alerts if danger arises. Video cameras within the building, including those used in classrooms for eLearning (where allowed), can then be switched on from command centers if necessary to confirm whether there’s an emergency in progress.
MOBILE CREDENTIALS, BIOMETRICS,
AND MORE ACCESS CONTROL POTENTIAL
Colleges and universities have had badge, card, and keypad electronic access control readers in place for many years. Now, it’s all about mobile credentials. Many higher education institutions nationwide are ei- ther fully in the midst of making the shift or have committed to doing so. Students expect that experience to match the level
of convenience and security their phones provide for practically every transaction now. As mentioned earlier, the migration to mobile has been growing in importance in K-12, too, for the efficiency and safety it provides faculty, staff, and first responders. An exciting new digital access solution is facial identification, where the credential is simply the human. Different than facial recognition, which has been used for surveillance and picking a person of interest out of a crowd, facial identification is an intentional application where a person chooses to allow the technology to use their face as a credential. In higher education, it’s particularly advantageous for athletic programs where carrying a phone or card is impractical and
risks the potential for loss or theft.
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