A western New York school district will become the first in the country to launch a facial recognition system it says will keep kids safe in the wake of mass shootings across the country.
The Lockport City School District will launch the first phase of the so-called Aegis system on Monday, The Lockport Journal reported.
The software uses a database of individuals and sends an alert to district personnel whenever a flagged person is detected on school grounds, according to the report.
The system will only track level 2 or 3 sex offenders, suspended students or staff, those banned from district property, and anyone officials believe who poses a threat, the statement said.
Ten types of guns will also be detectable by the system, the outlet reported.
It will not track any other students, staff, or visitors.
In a statement posted to the district’s website, Superintendent Michelle Bradley said that the district would test the program — adjusting cameras throughout all its buildings, training staff members assigned to the district-wide camera room and educating local law enforcement agencies about the system.
“We’ll just work through those things,” Bradley told the Journal. The system is expected to be fully operational by September 1
The district spent $1.4 million of the $4.2 million allocated to it through the state’s Smart Schools Bond Act to install the Aegis software, created by the Canadian company SN Technologies, the local paper reported.
The system has faced its share of opposition because of privacy concerns.
The New York Civil Liberties Union last year sent letters to both the state’s Department of Education and the state legislature — urging officials to halt the project, according to the report.
And State Assembly Member Monica Wallace introduced a bill that would put an end to the system if it’s approved, the paper reported.
The bill also requested the education department to perform a study on technology like this in schools.
But the system has quite a few detractors, Bradley told the paper that “it’s not something that is prohibited right now for us.”
“I would say for the Lockport City School District, while it’s controversial, it’s not prohibited and the most important thing is we believe we’ve established boundaries in the use of this,” she said. “We have a policy that intends to protect privacy. We have identified a small group of individuals who will be placed in a database.”
While other schools have considered launching facial recognition systems, Lockport will be the first district in the country to go forward with it, the American Civil Liberties Union told BuzzFeed News.
https://nypost.com/2019/05/30/new-y...utm_medium=SocialFlow&utm_campaign=SocialFlow
The Lockport City School District will launch the first phase of the so-called Aegis system on Monday, The Lockport Journal reported.
The software uses a database of individuals and sends an alert to district personnel whenever a flagged person is detected on school grounds, according to the report.
The system will only track level 2 or 3 sex offenders, suspended students or staff, those banned from district property, and anyone officials believe who poses a threat, the statement said.
Ten types of guns will also be detectable by the system, the outlet reported.
It will not track any other students, staff, or visitors.
In a statement posted to the district’s website, Superintendent Michelle Bradley said that the district would test the program — adjusting cameras throughout all its buildings, training staff members assigned to the district-wide camera room and educating local law enforcement agencies about the system.
“We’ll just work through those things,” Bradley told the Journal. The system is expected to be fully operational by September 1
The district spent $1.4 million of the $4.2 million allocated to it through the state’s Smart Schools Bond Act to install the Aegis software, created by the Canadian company SN Technologies, the local paper reported.
The system has faced its share of opposition because of privacy concerns.
The New York Civil Liberties Union last year sent letters to both the state’s Department of Education and the state legislature — urging officials to halt the project, according to the report.
And State Assembly Member Monica Wallace introduced a bill that would put an end to the system if it’s approved, the paper reported.
The bill also requested the education department to perform a study on technology like this in schools.
But the system has quite a few detractors, Bradley told the paper that “it’s not something that is prohibited right now for us.”
“I would say for the Lockport City School District, while it’s controversial, it’s not prohibited and the most important thing is we believe we’ve established boundaries in the use of this,” she said. “We have a policy that intends to protect privacy. We have identified a small group of individuals who will be placed in a database.”
While other schools have considered launching facial recognition systems, Lockport will be the first district in the country to go forward with it, the American Civil Liberties Union told BuzzFeed News.
https://nypost.com/2019/05/30/new-y...utm_medium=SocialFlow&utm_campaign=SocialFlow
