Security Solutions for Schools: Recognize Threats and Events in Real-Time

“In all my time as a principal, assistant principal, and even as a teacher I felt like we were constantly chasing our tails, everything we did with regard to student safety was reactive.”

These powerful frustrations are voiced by Adam Neely, Principal at Prescott High School in Prescott, AZ. No doubt, these sentiments are shared by educators and administrators nationwide. Statistics on incidents like school shootings, fighting and medical emergencies only reinforce the sheer size of the problem.

But what if it didn’t have to be that way?

“Using Volt.ai was the first time I really have been able to get out ahead of things that are happening proactively.”

Principal Neely, and the entire Prescott High School administrative team have been ushered into the future, given the power of real-time and proactive response to school safety and security. Read on to learn how Volt.ai has transformed the school security system as we know it.

School Security Solutions: Real Life Examples of Why Real-Time Response Matters

Let’s first run through a few real-life examples of when real-time responsiveness matters from your school’s security system.

Active Shooter Incidents

The most obvious, and painfully real example in today’s climate, is for identifying active shooter situations in schools before anyone gets hurt. Recognizing a weapon before it can be used, or immediately upon a shooter brandishing the weapon can mean the difference in saving numerous lives.

Volt.ai’s intelligent camera software technology allows this real-time recognition across your campus at all times. Volt’s weapon recognition capability has been tested in the real world and consistently performs, giving schools like Prescott High School peace of mind that they can recognize an active shooter situation fast enough to save lives.

Law enforcement can be automatically notified, and the system can be connected to other school security solutions to initiate lockdown procedures automatically, allowing for a significant reduction in response time and ability to provide safety in such situations.

Medical Emergencies

Precious seconds can be saved if a student suffers a medical emergency out of eye-shot of staff. Take this example, from a school who uses Volt.ai’s technology:

A student suffered an asthma attack in an empty hallway, it was immediately recognized by their AI security camera system, and appropriate staff was notified instantly, allowing for a 15 second response time for a nurse to be on scene.

Fights and Bullying

Stopping fights before they can escalate to serious injury is a key component to maintaining a safe and secure campus. Schools that use Volt.ai’s technology can recognize a fight the moment it begins, and there are even back-up measures to catch fights that may be happening in an area where cameras cannot be present (e.g. bathrooms or locker rooms). 

Take this example from a school that uses our intelligent security camera software: not only have fights that have broken out in front of cameras been stopped in a matter of seconds, a fight that took place in a locker room was immediately recognized and detected by ML models meant to identify anomalous behavior patterns, which picked up a group of students running toward the locker room.

Before this technology, fights could only be stopped if a staff member happened by the location of the fight or if a student notified a staff member of a fight in progress. The majority of the time, fight break-ups could take minutes at best or not even be recognized until after the fight had ended.

An added benefit of real-time fight detection is the message it sends to students. If students know they will be detected and caught immediately, it is much less likely they’ll engage in the behavior in the first place, reducing incidents altogether.

Loitering and Unwanted Access

Capturing unauthorized access to school grounds in real-time can prevent unwanted individuals from accessing the campus, help recognize individuals loitering and prevent off-hours theft.

Take this example from a Volt.ai customer: A few students entered a portion of the campus they were unauthorized to access and stole equipment from the school. It was equipment that would likely have taken weeks to realize was missing and then require resources to investigate and try to recover. Instead, staff was notified in real-time, the students were apprehended swiftly and dealt with, and all equipment was returned undamaged.

AI Security Camera Technology: What Can You Recognize in Real-Time?

Security solutions that provide real-time response capabilities are no longer a pipe dream. It is entirely possible, can integrate with your existing IP camera system, and doesn’t break the bank. 

Introducing Volt.ai: the solution to real-time response for critical campus safety and security events. You can now easily detect the following events the moment they occur, anywhere on your campus:

• Person down detection: Ability to identify and alert staff when someone is on the ground, potentially in distress. This triggers when the individual is laying or has fallen on the ground, not when lounging or sitting in a chair.
• Weapon detection: Volt.ai’s technology is capable of identifying weapons, including when they're held at a person's side. It will not trigger on holstered weapons of school security staff.
• Fight detection: School staff can tell immediately when a fight has broken out and respond immediately instead of retroactively. Two or more people fighting will trigger this rule.
• Loitering: Detect individuals, suspicious, unwanted or otherwise, spending too much time in locations you don’t want them to. People in a given area for a specified duration, adjustable in the portal, will trigger this rule.
• Unwanted Access: Customized rules allow the staff to detect unwanted access during specific times or at specific locations that have helped detect theft and other undesirable activities.
• Object left behind: Catch objects left behind by people as they move away, such as backpacks, suitcases and bags immediately.
• Crowd detection: Ability to identify unusual crowd buildups in hallways or other areas to alert to a potential issue that needs immediate addressing. This detects anomalies in behavior that can help recognize issues where cameras are not present (e.g. locker rooms, by detecting a crowding or group movement patterns that are anomalous outside of the room). 

Make it yours with customizable rules: The customization of rules, including which staff members to notify about which events, or even when to automatically notify law enforcement allows each school to enact their own unique strategy for security and safety, fitting the needs of their campus.

Augment Existing Security Systems

AI video intelligence is a welcome addition to other common security solutions for schools:

• Access control systems
• Existing security cameras
• Physical security mechanisms
• Alarm systems
• Law enforcement or School Resource Officers (SROs)

When Seconds Make all the Difference, Volt.ai Answers the Call

Learn more about how schools like Prescott High School are implementing AI security camera technology into their school security systems to revolutionize the way they can respond to major school security or campus safety events.

Curious about how it might work in your school? Get a demo from one of our team members, who can walk you through all the features of our software, and help you understand the level of effort required for integration (commonly our system can be up and running within a single week and can work with your existing IP security cameras!).

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