LEEDS, Ala. (WBRC) – Leeds City Schools is now using facial recognition technology on its campuses.
“The biggest thing for us is the safety of our children,” said Andrew Jackson, Supervisor of Instructional Technology for Leeds City Schools.
Jackson continued, “Almost all of our staff has kids here, and it’s one of those things, we want to treat everybody like we would our own kids. This is the most expensive camera software on the market, but for safety and security of our students, we believe we should spare no expense for that.”
The software came at a cost of $95,000 and includes License Plate Recognition (LPR) technology. Jackson said the district considered worst-case scenarios when purchasing this system.
“The advantage is if we were to have an active shooter situation or something like that we can immediately give law enforcement access, find where the intruder is in the building, and they can follow it live on the cameras,” said Jackson.
To demonstrate how the facial recognition technology works, Jackson uploaded a photo of WBRC′s Morgan Hightower into the system. Within seconds, he pulled up footage from the parking lot, front entrance and lobby of Leeds Primary School.
“He’s going to start staring these to increase the algorithm. The more times he clicks the star, the more accurate the camera is, determining who is here,” explained Jackson, looking at the footage.
“Now we’ve got you way out in the parking lot, a camera we weren’t even looking at, I found you in the parking lot, and have some really good shots, and now the camera can start adding all this information together and it’s gets more and more and more precise.”
Jackson said anyone added to the watchlist will be tracked in this manner, and school officials, including the principal and School Resource Officer, will get an alert if the system finds someone on the watchlist on campus.
“It’s really unique because we don’t have to have somebody sitting and watching cameras all the time, because we want our school resource officers to be out and about,” said Jackson.
Leeds Primary School Principal Steven Porter said they’re already seeing the everyday value of the system.
“We still have the occasion where they may wander into the wrong bus, or start to get on the wrong bus, we are easily able to track that and communicate with the parents and the bus drivers immediately,” explained Porter.
He added, “If you see this, you have to see the benefit of it and it allows us to be able to track kids, even for like non-threatening reasons, just to make sure we can locate our kids quickly.”
“Our process is not to take information and be big brother,” said Jackson when asked if this technology was necessary. He said the use of artificial intelligence enhances current safety procedures, including basic steps like ensuring all doors are locked at all times.
Principal Porter said parents approve of the extra security.
“A lot of this just gives them peace of mind, this is before they really even know anything about the camera technology, just the things we do on a daily basis, they feel comfortable bringing their kids here and making sure they are safe.”
Jackson said the district is in the process of uploading registered sex offenders into their system so they’ll be alerted if anyone is on campus who should not be there, and adds this technology can be helpful in domestic situations.
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