Peoria — A new software program monitoring security cameras in Peoria Public Schools is aimed at stopping incidents before they happen.
The school installed the IntelliSee real-time artificial intelligence risk management platform this week on 64 of the district’s more than 800 surveillance cameras. The system, which cost the district $48,000, can detect threats like a gun, spilled drinks or a person who has fallen, and send warnings to district personnel and the police.
“This is turning security cameras into something proactive,” said Demario Boone, director of school safety for PPS. “Something like what happened at Uvalde, where the young man wrecked the vehicle and walked out with that long gun in his hand, it immediately would have flagged him, and then they would be able to put the school on lockdown. The officer in the building could have seen that text, it would have sent a message to the city police and they could be on the way by the time he even got to that building.”
There are limits to how useful traditional security cameras are because they cannot be monitored by a human being every hour of the day. IntelliSee monitoring is 24/7, and the system will actually become better over time because it can learn, said Boone.
“The computer learns as it evolves,” he said. “If somebody is holding a phone and it flags it as a firearm, we’re able to see, ‘OK, that’s not a firearm, it’s a phone,’ and the computer, the AI, learns from that.”
District officials were already shopping for this type of software when the mass school shooting happened in Uvalde, Texas. The incident made the effort more urgent and led to more available funding for enhanced security, said Boone.
The system will add another layer of protection to the district’s security plan. Last year, the district added more metal detectors at some schools to help screen people when they enter the schools. This year the district will employ 29 officers. While that’s not enough to keep an officer in each of the district’s 27 schools full-time, officers have the ability to monitor security cameras remotely. The IntelliSee system will help in that effort.
“These cameras are an effort to give us more of a heads-up,” said Boone.
Officers are not the only ones trained to handle special situations. Staff members, from teachers to janitorial staff, are trained to respond to threats.
“We’ve been doing active assailant training for five years, so we were kind of ahead of the curve on this,” said Boone. “Everybody is important when there is an active assailant. We lay that out in a presentation we do. We partner with the Peoria Police Department.”
Staff members are taught to lock doors and how to run, hide and fight, said Boone. When the training was new, it was frightening to some staff members, but over the years, as incidents in schools throughout the U.S. have increased, staff have become less fearful and more engaged, said Boone.
“We get very good questions and then we get very good feedback,” he said.
The training is about more than just dealing with an active shooter, however. It also helps staff members recognize potential problems and intervene before a situation becomes a crisis, said Boone.
“The biggest thing is climate. We have to create cultures and climate, so students feel OK to report certain things, and staff members feel comfortable on how to detect certain things, and then the (school resource officers) can follow up and put supports in place.”
Leslie Renken can be reached at 309-370-5087 or lrenken@pjstar.com. Follow her on Facebook.com/leslie.renken.
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