Biometric id systems can keep sex offenders out of schools

If a biometric identification system was put in place in New Zealand’s schools, it could help weed out employees who are convicted sex offenders.

Currently, the New Zealand Government has no idea how many of their school district personnel have either a criminal record or is a known sex offender. This issue raised alarms all over the country after the news about Henry Te Rito Miki surfaced. Miki is a known sex offender who has allegedly used more than 50 fake names to teach in six North Island schools.

Currently, there is no law that explicitly prevents a sex offender from working in a school. However, those that are properly identified as such can be closely monitored by the New Zealand Teachers Council or could be reassigned to other areas where there is less child and adult contact.

Several recommendations have been given which range from amending certain laws, refining individual school policies and even getting better identification technology in the school system. Parents are also becoming more vigilant in watching over their children in the hopes in order to prevent such a crime from touching their families.

It is estimated that a small but significant percentage of teachers in the country have been charged with a crime, often violent or sexual in nature. Miki is not a special case, as another teacher who sexually molested a 15-year-old girl in Auckland also recently made headlines. The other teacher, who asked for name suppression, still continues to teach girls of that same age but follows strict conditions from the Teachers Council.

Using biometric technology to correctly identify a person means that he can no longer hide by simply changing his name and growing a beard.

Is it possible for sex offenders to get past biometric identification systems as easily as other monitoring systems?

Article Topics

biometrics  |  criminal ID  |  facial features  |  facial recognition  |  identification  |  software  |  technology