Credit: Dan Sokil/The Reporter
Could a new security system help make North Penn’s Crawford Stadium, and other large events, more secure?
School board members saw a preview in late March of a security system that could streamline the screening process for those entering stadiums, schools, and more.
“We use Crawford Stadium a lot. We have large, well-attended events, and so those who have come to football games, or other events, know that we conduct bag checks of individuals attending those events,” said Coordinator of Safe Schools Brandon Rhone.
Located adjacent to North Penn High School, Crawford Stadium was opened in the early 1970s, extensively renovated in 2020-21, then reopened in fall 2021 with accessibility upgrades, improved drainage, a new artificial field surface, and expanded capabilities for hosting more sports than just football.
Since the stadium reopened it’s hosted the annual high school graduation ceremony each year, and board members and administrators have opened the stadium to the public for early-morning joggers, and approved renting the stadium to Lansdale Catholic High School for four of that school’s football games in fall 2024.
During the safe schools committee meeting on March 25, Rhone presented a new option for the stadium: Evolv, a new security screening system of mobile weapons detection scanners that could be stationed at the entrances to the stadium, schools, or anywhere else the district needs to check large numbers of visitors quickly.
“Its sole purpose is to detect weapons. And then if there is something detected, there is a technology that will alert the individual watching the tablet, and then a secondary search would be conducted,” Rhone said.
Evolv representative David Gutshall showed a demonstration video of the scanners and how they work, telling the committee they’re already in place at the Philadelphia sports complex, in over 800 schools across the country, and in school districts in Reading, Delaware County, and Abington. Instead of using individual handheld scanners and wands, or patting down students as they pass through, Evolv scanners can detect possible weapons on students or in bags as they walk past, without having to wait in line or put bags or phones on a belt or bowl.
“What the system is doing is analyzing all the metal items coming through the system: it is using the size, shape, and density of those metal items, to determine whether it’s an everyday item like keys, wallets, cellphone, or the makeup of components that would make a firearm, large blade, pipe bomb, shrapnel type shapes, et cetera,” Gutshall said.
“Security personnel, when they hear and see the alert, are able in real-time to to look down, the tablet will identify exactly who it was that caused the alert, and there will also be a red box on (images of) that person’s body or bag, where the object in question was located. So, gone are the days of full-on frisk, or wanding. It’s simply a conversation with that person, that something was found on your right hip, or in your bookbag,” he said.
Board member Cathy McMurtrie asked how often the system detects false positives, and Gutshall said it depends, and company representatives work with security staff to develop and fine-tune the scanning criteria and sensitivity levels.
“There are some common, everyday items that could trigger alerts, based on that sensitivity level. The higher you go, the more opportunity to have what you’re referring to as false alerts,” he said.
One item that could cause a false alert might be an umbrella, he said, with a hollow metal tube that could be read as a weapon by the scanner, but with a visual box indicating where the object was found by the scanner.
“Umbrellas are typically out in somebody’s hands, or put on the side of their bag. The tablet may cause that alert, but the staff member or security personnel is then able to look down, and probably in real-time determine it’s the umbrella in somebody’s hand, not something else, that caused that (alert), he said.
Staff are requesting one dual scanner and two single scanners, which could be moved between schools and stadiums as needed, and minimal change to staffing or security strategies.
“Not much changes, because we are phyisclaly doing, what the machine is able to do faster. We’re going to reduce wait times, because we don’t have individuals being checked by another individual,” Rhone said: “now we have a machine doing a majority of the work.”
Superintendent Todd Bauer added that the equipment would enhance capabilities at big games and major events, but likely not be used every day.
Scanners could be deployed at a school if a tip or threat is received, with plenty of communication to families as part of the process. “This could be something that we could deploy and take to that school, just to add that extra layer,” Bauer said.
Bauer said the equipment could be funded from the district’s 2023-24 budget, at an estimated cost of roughly $200,000, with a full board vote at a future meeting needed to buy the equipment and software.
North Penn’s safe schools committee next meets at 5:45 p.m. on April 29 online. For more information visit www.NPenn.org.
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