Freedom Lawyers of America

> Designed to detect sex offenders or missing children
>
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/1211edsecurity11.htm
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>
> A north-central Phoenix school is the first in the nation to install
> cameras designed to detect the faces of sex offenders or missing children
> and instantly alert police.
>
> The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office used a grant to install equipment in
> the entrance and attendance office at Royal Palm Middle School, 8520 N.
> 19th Ave. The cameras are expected to be operating next week.
>
> Rebecca Dornbusch, deputy director of the International Biometric Industry
> Association in Washington D.C., had never heard of biometric face scanning
> being used on K-12 campuses. Biometric handprints are being used by a few
> day care centers to insure the right adults are picking up kids after
> school, she said.
>
> "This is a very interesting and new application of the technology,"
> Dornbusch said.
>
> Sheriff Joe Arpaio said the cameras cost about $3,000 to $5,000 for a
> school to install and will not violate the privacy of anyone not already
in
> the Arizona sex offender or in the national missing children databases,
> including possible abductors of missing children. If the camera registers
a
> possible hit, the Sheriff's Office is quietly alerted and will send a
> deputy or police officer to investigate.
>
> Arpaio said the Royal Palm system is not set to recognize people wanted
for
> other crimes. School districts are not interested in becoming law
> enforcement agencies, he said.
>
> "The main issue is to take care of kids," Arpaio said. "We're not going to
> go after people who have warrants."
>
> The system scans 28 facial features and matches them against logged images
> in the databases. School personnel will not know about the alert, and
> images that do not match the databases are erased, with no permanent
recording.
>
> Mary Lou Micheaels is a mother of three and a member of the Washington
> District School Board. She's heard no complaints from parents.
>
> "I wanted to make sure it was a system that protected our children and
> protected people's privacy," Micheaels said. "If one child isn't abducted,
> or one is found, it's worth it."
>
> Principal Mike Christensen carries around the responsibility for the
safety
> of Royal Palm's 1,180 seventh- and eighth-graders. Christensen said he
> volunteered to test the new equipment, even though the campus has reported
> no problems.
>
> "I do not think we can do too much," Christensen said. "When kids walk on
> campus, the expectation is they need to be safe."
>
> Royal Palm mother Teresa Johnson said she supports the idea and would like
> to see the campus install a third biometric camera in the parking lot, a
> more likely place to find sex offenders lurking.
>
> Arpaio's office already is using biometric equipment to help verify the
> identity of suspects being booked into county jails. The locally based
> Hummingbird Defense Systems donated $350,000 worth of equipment to
Arpaio's
> office for pilot projects.
>
> The chances of catching a molester or finding a missing child on this
> campus are remote, Arpaio said, but this is an experiment that could begin
> to make a difference in a growing problem. Arpaio said he's ready to help
> other districts install the equipment.
>
>
>
> Reach the reporter at pat.kossan@arizonarepublic.com.
>