Security measures reduce the risk of crime and school violence by enabling the school administration to control and monitor access to any facility area. In facilities with a history of crime, physical security enhancements help to “harden targets,” sending the message that it will be harder to commit a crime or act of violence at the school. Target hardening includes installing video cameras, metal detectors, or alarm systems. Security technologies can increase detection and delay or slow a perpetrator’s progress, but they are not sufficient to reduce crime and violence. To ensure the security of students, faculty, and staff, schools should

• Require visitors to sign in or show proper identification
• Lock unmonitored doors from the outside at all times to prevent unauthorized persons or items from entering the building unnoticed
• Monitor students entering and exiting the school property
• Check that all entries have high-security locks or electronic access control units (this applies especially to closets that have private information or hazardous materials, outside doors, and basements)
• Verify that electronic access control units are protected from unauthorized mechanical override with secure critical bypass using patented control of duplication of keys
• Ensure that deadlocks are not accessible from the inside of the restroom
• Install sheet steel covers on both sides of back and basement doors
• Prevent doors from being pried open by ensuring that door frames and hinges are properly maintained n Secure all windows
• Change locks or re-key cylinders upon change of staff or administration
• Use motion-sensitive lights outside
• Add lighting to dark places around the building, and cut back shrubs so light can penetrate
• Discourage violence by ensuring stairwells and out-of-the-way corridors are well lighted.
• Equip the receptionist with a panic button for emergencies, a camera with a monitor at another location, and a high-security lock on the front door that can be controlled from the desk
• Secure identification badges, office keys, and codes and develop a process for reporting lost or missing badges and keys
• Develop a formal documentation policy that defines when documents should be destroyed and how

For non-technical, nonvendor-specific information on security technologies, consult The Appropriate and Effective Use of Security Technologies in U.S. Schools: A Guide for Schools and Law Enforcement Agencies, a research report from the National Institute of Justice. It provides information on

• Security products
• Strengths, weaknesses, and expected effects of these products in schools
• Costs of products—installation, operation, maintenance, manpower, and training expenses
• Related legal issues