AI and electronic locks take center stage in Verkada podcast on school security

Keeping intruders out is the main objective of modern school security systems and technologies. This should be most obvious to those living in places plagued by school shootings, during which one or multiple assailants have entered the premises of schools from the outside with the aim to kill indiscriminately—and succeeded way too often in doing so.
 
Pat Hamilton, Alliance Director at the “I Love U Guys” Foundation, has seen 10 US states adopt the group’s standard protocols for active shooter situations—including technology-driven recommendations and small but meaningful shifts in the behaviors of administrators, educators and students that can save lives.
 
Hamilton, who was featured in the first episode of Verkada’s new video podcast series and newsletter, Vantage Points, sees electronic locks and proactive AI-powered school security systems as game-changers.  
 

Integration enables quick response

Electronic locks are central to enabling schools to go into lockdown before an assailant can cause harm. Speed is what counts most.
 
“We know from our data that these things are over 70% in five minutes, 90% in 10 minutes,” Hamilton told the podcast hosts—Michael Evanoff, a former US Assistant Secretary of State who is now Global Chief Security Officer at Verkada; and Cari Guittard, a homeland security and geopolitical risk strategist.
 
In many school districts, however, the speed of the response solely relies on the situational awareness of those involved, as there is little technology in place to speed up the process, Hamilton said.
 
“The current state for a lot of schools is someone has to go outside of the classroom door and lock it and then close it,” he explained, adding that simple technology, such as push-button locks, can improve the situation, while also offering practical advantages, including letting students in and out for bathroom breaks without disrupting the educational environment.
 
Best practice, however, is having electronic locks integrated across the whole campus, he said.
 
“We’re seeing more and more adoption of electronic locks, and all of this is integrated,” Hamilton stated. “When you are initiating [the lockdown]—it could be a phone, it could be a button on the wall, it could be a call—the doors throughout the whole facility lock.”
 
Electronic locks can also be integrated with LED lights, signaling educators that they and their students are safely locked away from danger and—importantly—out of sight of the assailant, he added.
 
In terms of technology, tailor-made locking solutions are the single most important element to keep students safe during an active shooter situation, Hamilton concludes, citing the report of a Connecticut state government commission after the deadly Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012.
 
Since then, the US has ‘only’ seen three casualties among students who were locked in during active shooter situations—two were shot through windows next to safely locked classroom doors, and one was shot by an assailant who had entered the classroom before the lock could be activated, Hamilton added.
 
Integrated solutions that are becoming increasingly common in the US automatically alert law enforcement officers—and only they can lift a lockdown once it has been activated.
 

Proactive AI

Another important factor is the ever-deeper integration of AI, which has been in use in planning the responses to threats for a while, but is increasingly becoming a proactive part of the school security landscape.
 
“If you think of a facility as a series of concentric circles, we can start at the outermost circle. If we can identify a threat long before it even approaches the front door, and we can initiate a protocol, it’s a game changer,” Hamilton stated. “The line denomination and person-of-interest [recognition] is an amazing tool to be utilized, especially if you know the people that you don’t want on campus.”
 
“Even before they hit the door, the cameras will recognize them and alert you immediately,” he added.
 

Advancements beyond technology

One of the main focuses of the “I Love U Guys” Foundation” is organizing lockdown trainings. It has been active in the field for nearly 20 years—ever since it was founded by the parents of a student who had fallen victim to a school shooter. Their daughter’s last message to them was “I Love U Guys.”
 
Lockdown trainings are commonly conducted in the US and other countries that have seen school shootings, while they are virtually unknown in other parts of the world. In the US, too, they are seen as controversial by some, citing their questionable effectiveness and potential psychological harm to children.
 
To Hamilton, these are challenges that need to be overcome, rather than arguments why they shouldn’t be held in the first place. The drills—designed by the foundation according to the needs of different age groups from kindergarten up—should focus on enabling a “muscle memory response” instead of traumatizing participants, he said.
 
When the foundation started operating, the focus was on creating a common language that all those involved could use in every threat scenario—from school shootings all the way down to students in mental distress, from children alerting each other of a threat to security and law enforcement personnel.
 
“At the time we had four responses. It was lockdown, lockout, shelter and evacuate,” Hamilton said. This list has since evolved into “hold, secure, lockdown, evacuate, shelter.”
 
The foundation has also deepened the approaches it suggests—including on how to return students safely to their parents after a threat has been managed, or instructions for 15-second “situational awareness breaks” that should help educators assess potential threats. It has also expanded its operation beyond the US, with trainings as far afield as the United Arab Emirates.
 
With Vantage Points, Verkada seeks to deliver candid conversations from top voices across the security industry. Future episodes will cover the dual mandate of modern security: the protection of people and places, and the use of integrated technology to drive operational efficiency. Guests will include academics and other professionals from the fields of law enforcement, security industry associations and security directors at global companies.