School Track Students with RFID; Homeland Security Head Praises Chicago's Security Cameras

School Looks to Track Student and Faculty with RFID

August 25, 2010

ReadWriteWeb - So much for bathroom passes and hall monitors -- these days it's technology that is making the art of skipping class much more difficult for students, and we're not just talking about security cameras.

A forward-thinking school district in Connecticut is looking to crack down on wayward students, faculty and even equipment by making use of radio frequency identification (RFID) in its schools.

New Canaan Public Schools hopes to increase the efficiency of its security efforts by embedding RFID tags into student and faculty identification cards and onto various pieces of school equipment. The tags could be used to track where specific students and faculty are located throughout campus, as well as hunt down missing laptops, projectors and other school property.

SecureRF Corporation, a company specializing in secure RFID software, proposed the project to the school district. Funding for the project could come by way of a $100,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, which the company is close to finalizing.

One of the alternative uses the company has offered to the district is to enable tracking on school buses to see who uses the buses and how often. The data collected from experiments like these could be used to better budget the school funds, potentially opening up more money to underfunded areas of education, like the arts. Some district board members raised questions about privacy, but the experiments will likely be opt-in if they are given the green light.

Anyone who has driven through a toll station on a highway without having to stop to drop a few coins knows the potential for RFID to improve and optimize our everyday lives. For school officials tasked with managing hundreds of students across large campuses, technology like this could make their jobs much easier, keeping kids safer.

Homeland Security Head Praises Chicago's Security Cameras

August 27, 2010

Chicago Sun-Times - U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Thursday ranked Chicago’s Big Brother network of well over 10,000 public and private surveillance cameras as one of the nation’s most extensive and integrated — and Mayor Daley wants to make it even bigger.

“Expansion of cameras citywide is one of the highest priorities that will help us here in the city of Chicago,” Daley said with Napolitano at his side.

“Cameras are the key. They are a deterrent. They solve crimes. It deals with terrorism. It deals with gangs, guns and drugs in our society.”

After touring the 911 emergency center that doubles as a clearinghouse for surveillance video, Napolitano pronounced Chicago’s “very robust camera infrastructure” among the “top two or three” in the nation. Asked to identify rivals, she named only New York City.

“It’s not just cameras, but they are inter-connected and then connected back here so they can really be utilized to target resources where they need to go and to tell first-responders what they’re going to be confronting,” she said.

Pressed on whether the ever-expanding network is a good thing, the secretary said,

“Absolutely. If you look at cities around the world — like London, for example, [and] Madrid has been employing more cameras — they are deterrents. But, they are also force-multipliers and they enable us to make the best use of our first-responders.”

Unlike so many other Cabinet secretaries who visit Chicago, Napolitano said,

“I did not come on this trip bearing checks.” But, she said she took “careful notes” on Chicago’s needs.

Daley refused to reveal specifics of the wish list he delivered to Napolitano.

But, he once again made it a point to tout the $217 million 911 center that opened in 1995, after massive cost overruns.

“Remember, we had the vision and the foresight and the stamina to build this. Very few cities ever combined their fire and police department and emergency under one roof. We have done this. Very few cities, not only in the United States, but the world have done that,” he said.

Every year, Daley uses the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to pronounce Chicago as safe as any major city can possibly be.

Approaching the ninth anniversary, Napolitano agreed.

“In a world where we cannot eliminate all risks, Chicagoans can be confident that every effort that I know of that can be made is being made to minimize the risk. And if something were to happen, their first-responders are prepared,” she said.

In a news release distributed at the press conference, Daley also announced that the Department of Homeland Security has decided to assign a “full-time liason” to Chicago. The mayor's chief-of-staff Ray Orozco, a former fire commissioner, already serves on a Homeland Security Task Force. That's an elite group of first-responders charged with evaluating the national strategy on emergency preparedness.