We offer advanced vape sensors to schools across south-west England which are a useful tool, when combined with a strong behaviour policy and staff action, to reduce vaping among young people. Schools could choose to have alerts for a wide range of factors – the vape detector that we install the HALO Smart Sensor 3C has 15 sensors, but most customers concentrate on those that help to detect vaping. HALO uses a dynamic vape detection algorithm to automatically learn the environment and alert when vaping is detected. Additionally, there are sensors that can detect when vaping is masked and the sensor is able to detect if cannabis is smoked or if THC is vaped.
The schools that have purchased vape detectors report that if there is vaping there will be a busy first week when alerts will be triggered regularly so both teaching and non-teaching staff need to be ready to respond and take action to catch perpetrators. Schools we have worked with recommended the use of CCTV near the entrances of toilet blocks so that footage could be reviewed of students if staff did not reach pupils quickly enough.
Schools have also found there are added benefits to vape detection as the anti-social behaviour that often happens when students gather together to vape is also reduced and this can save money too.
Picking up loud noises and calls for help
The HALO Smart Sensor, can also pick up loud noises, with its aggression detection, and will send an alert if sounds go above a certain pre-set threshold. An alert for aggression could be a sign of vandalism taking place or of students gathering when they should be in lessons or possibly bullying or fighting. The alert gives school staff the opportunity to take action and check if students are misbehaving in the school toilets or changing rooms.
There have been concerns raised that smart sensors installed by schools to tackle the vaping problem might actively listen to pupils and therefore be a threat to their privacy. We would like to be clear that the HALO vape sensors do not record audio. Instead, smart sensors use applied machine learning to understand the normal noise levels of a room. Once the smart sensor has learnt the normal sound levels in a space it can send alerts if the threshold of noise above this is detected for a specified period of time.
Additionally, the sensor, is pre-programmed to detect specific key words that could indicate a call for help. Each HALO device comes preloaded with five spoken keyword phrases that will trigger an alert. However, it is not recording any audio and will only send a notification when those words are said aloud. There is no personal data is stored on the devices.
Reducing Vandalism in school toilets
Schools have found that once they start to action when vaping is detected and reduced this in their toilets, vandalism in the toilets is also prevented. Additionally, if students attempt to vandalise or remove the actual vape detector this will set off the tamper alert for the HALO Smart Sensor giving schools peace of mind that their investment is safe.
As well as reducing costs for schools related to repairing any damage that might have been caused to toilet areas due to vandalism, staff costs are reduced, or staff will be better deployed, if they were employed primarily to patrol toilets and corridors to tackle vaping and bad behaviour.
Supporting schools: contact us for advice
If school leaders in south-west England want to find out about all the vape detection and other features of the HALO Smart Sensor and learn how they could save money over the long-term they can get in touch with us now.
