Airport Security: Travelling with Children

 

An airport can be a pretty intimidating place for a little kid. Especially if they get separated from Mom and Dad. 

 

Crawling with security personnel and surveillance, airports have resources aimed at stopping drug trafficking or terrorism - however those systems aren’t necessarily as effective at preventing a lost child from getting in a dangerous situation. Furthermore, airport personnel are busy enough as it is; helping a parent track down a wandering child may take them away from other security duties. 

 

And yet, when there’s a hysterical parent claiming their child has disappeared, airport security has little choice but to react. The traditional approach would be for the security official who is contacted to send out a system-wide alert to the entire security team, asking personnel all over the airport to try to find a child based on a description. 

 

There has to be a better way. 

 

Fortunately, there is, thanks to a crop of new technology hitting the market daily. For example, people-tracking analytics that are included in video management systems like our VideoXpert™ solution allows personnel to scan thousands of people in seconds, using predetermined search criteria— height, hair color, shirt color, and others— to locate an individual meeting that criteria. 

 

Analytics-based tools from technology giants like IBM also give “eyes” to airport surveillance with the ability to detect lost children entering hazardous areas before they’re even reported by their worried families. Smart VMS software trigger alarms and notify security officers immediately when a perimeter or barrier is breached without authorization, movement is detected in the opposite direction of traffic, or when doors are opened with force - creating a more proactive airport security by responding to possible incidents or effectively and preventing harm to anyone in an unauthorized area. 

Kids wander and parents panic. Those are two issues that are never going away. But what we can do is reduce the amount of time and tears are spent before Junior is reunited with Mom and Dad.