ONLY ON 11: New AI cameras in local schools hope to better protect students from threats

ALLEGHENY COUNTY, Pa. — Look left and right, you’ll have a camera in your sight on the Montour School campus.

“Within seconds of video motion being captured it would log the entry into the server and the server could then be queried in the software in seconds,” said Aidan Mulvihill, who’s Montour’s technology administrator.

These cameras log real-time movements with a new artificial intelligence software.

“They are able to disaggregate through the photos and video feeds to look for specific items, for example, a student’s shirt color or type of shoes they are wearing, in the event an incident does occur,” said Dr. Chris Stone, Montour’s superintendent.

With over 500 cameras, Montour is just getting started — with the first 20 cameras going live with the AI technology next week.

“We chose to do the entry and exit points first because it will at least tell you where they entered, and when they entered,” Mulvihill said.

Plus, a license plate reading system that can flag cars entering campus too. It’s an investment of hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant funding that this district prioritized in a world where school threats are becoming all too common.

“I think it’s vital, unfortunately when things happen they happen very rapidly and quickly and our job is to ascertain the level of threat and understand what’s happening relatively quickly,” Stone said.

It’s a new technology that is already spreading in our area, with Woodland Hills School District just finishing its installation at all district buildings and even the Wolvarena. Superintendent Dr. Daniel Castagna told Channel 11 they’ve already set up alerts. For example, if a gun is spotted by any camera, an alert is immediately sent to all administrators.

“It’s something once you see the new technology and the time it saves and safety it offers the students you can’t say no. It puts you in a position that you have to be on the cutting edge of all this new technology when it comes to security,” Castagna said.

All this camera footage is kept on servers for two weeks, allowing district leaders to go back and view trends as well.

Montour hopes to have all the cameras updated to the new system in the next three years with gradual rollout phases.

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