The Pros and Cons of Installing Metal Detectors in Schools

School and university officials must consider both the benefits and the drawbacks of every security investment, like this common entryway solution.

The Pros and Cons of Installing Metal Detectors in Schools

Some argue metal detectors are a strong deterrence while others believe they send the wrong message.

Placing metal detectors in schools and colleges has always been a controversial move. As with every security decision, administrators have a lot of things to take into account before making the decision to purchase these devices.

But even more so than with other security investments, installing metal detectors needs to be a choice made with the wider community in mind. How will students, teachers and parents respond?

In some cases, district officials have faced criticism for using metal detectors. In New York City, that criticism led a city hall panel to recommend the devices be removed from many city schools.

But with every instance of weapons violence on school campuses, more officials wonder if metal detection is the best way to protect their campus. This trend has led to an increase in the percentage of schools that use the devices, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

Although it’s difficult to track security systems in all schools, NCES reports that 8.7 percent of public high schools in the country used metal detectors at least once during the 2013-2014 school year. That’s nearly four percentage points more than in 2010, when NCES found that only 5 percent of schools used metal detectors.

“Metal detection is on the rise right now,” Joe Vazquez, the director of security sales for Garrett Metal Detectors, says. “It’s one of the hottest security technologies.”

With more school and college officials considering purchasing metal detectors, here is a rundown of some of the pros and cons of deploying this technology.

Pros of Installing Metal Detectors in Schools

Weapons Confiscation

The first benefit that pops into most people’s minds when they think about metal detectors in schools is the ability to find and confiscate weapons from people entering the building or campus.

There’s no doubt fewer unauthorized weapons in school buildings create a safer campus. But certain districts may benefit from weapons detection more than others.

Schools located in areas with high gun ownership or violent crime rates, for instance, may find weapons screening more useful than schools where students and visitors find it more difficult to get weapons.

For instance, many New York City schools are located in neighborhoods where the rate of gun violence is higher than the nation’s average. Below are the numbers of weapons confiscations at NYC schools over the past three academic years, according to the NYPD:

  • 2016-2017: 2,120 weapons
  • 2015-2016: 2,053 weapons
  • 2014-2015: 1,673 weapons

Approximately half of those weapons were confiscated using metal detectors, including firearms, stun guns and knives. Other school districts and universities are unlikely to find nearly as many weapons on their campuses.

Still, if the devices help officials confiscate even one weapon from an individual intending to do harm with it, many would argue that makes the investment worth it.

Many modern walkthrough metal detectors can pinpoint exactly where on a person an item is located that’s causing an alarm.

Deterrence

The weapons confiscation metric isn’t the only way to gauge the effectiveness of a metal detector. According to Vazquez, the mere presence of the machines may be enough to prevent violence if the attacker thinks they’re likely to get caught as they enter the building.

This is particularly true for the students, staff and visitors who enter the building (and walk through the machines) each day and thus are familiar with the security systems in place.

Vazquez believes detectors could also stop attackers previously unaware of the machines.

“These machines are definitely a deterrent,” he says. “Someone who has at least some hesitancy with what they’re doing will probably reconsider if they see a checkpoint with a metal detector.”

The deterrence factor is much harder to quantify than confiscations, but it’s certainly something campus officials should consider.

Campus Community Safety Perceptions

The presence of metal detectors can certainly lead to tangible security improvements, but it can also set peoples’ minds at ease by showing them that everyone in the building has been screened.

Campus security officials’ primary goal should be ensuring a safe environment so teachers and students can focus on what matters most in school: learning. Metal detectors can help accomplish that.

And beyond weapons screening, the presence of the machines shows the community that the school is taking safety seriously and investing accordingly. Luca Cacioli, Director of Operations for CEIA USA, says school officials understand metal detectors complement a wider security strategy.

“Metal detectors are only a portion of the solution for school security practices,” she says.

If a school has metal detectors, parents may worry less about its access control and visitor management measures. Of course, the machines’ presence can be interpreted in different ways.

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About the Author

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Zach Winn is a journalist living in the Boston area. He was previously a reporter for Wicked Local and graduated from Keene State College in 2014, earning a Bachelor’s Degree in journalism and minoring in political science.

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16 responses to “The Pros and Cons of Installing Metal Detectors in Schools”

  1. […] have a lot of things to take into account before making the decision to purchase these devices. (read more)   School districts seek to beef up security (New York) – RecordOnline.com Voters in the […]

  2. If someone said, “what’s the first thing that comes to mind if I say, The Happiest Place on earth”, people will usually respond with, ‘Disney world!’, and if I’m not mistaken, they use Metal Detectors.
    So, if the Happiest Place On Earth can use Metal Detectors, and check all bags that enter their parks, why can’t schools do the same.
    I understand where budget and manpower can come into the discussion, but like your article reads, come up with the money somehow, someway, hold fundraisers or use other creative ways to raise the funds necessary.

  3. What are the options? 1. Do we chance going out in a storm for fear of getting struck by lightning? So risk assessment says odds of a shooting at our school are way too low to beef up security? 2. Do we let teachers arm themselves in defense of themselves and their students and let the public and students know that a percentage of the school is armed and live in the days of the wild, wild west? 3. Metal detectors at entryways? A clever student with intent to harm could easily take out the armed individuals at the entrance and carry on with his/her motives. 4. For those worried about an attack in the unforeseen future just home-school their children? What other options are there? Which is the most logical and least taxing?

  4. Be proactive and install them in every school. Trained security folks too. We have increased security at airports and had zero hi-jacked aircraft since 9/11.
    I think it is a small price to pay to prevent the carnage….

  5. Bitsy says:

    Who cares what people think? Put in metal detectors in all schools. That is, if the parents want their kids to live! You can’t control the guns on the street, but you can control a building or a school. Hello, it’s very simple.

  6. Daaaaang! Thats not fair! We Need better security!

  7. lebron james says:

    i agree bro that rlly sucks like ur skillz

  8. lebron james says:

    daaaaaang thaats not fair we need better security i agree freind

  9. Kyle says:

    Good lord I don’t even know where to start but simply NO! Metal detectors are only ‘hot’ because it’s the popular thing to do. If you were told to jump off a cliff to stop a school shooting I am sure many of you would (great way to reduce global population by the UN) because security experts say that certain kinds of groups are more likely to bring guns to school.

    So anyways the cost of metal detectors (for a cheap crappy one is 4,000$) JUST FOR ONE! out of 10 exits and many more windows. (Which also doubles as a fire escape if the door fails). What will happen when just ONE metal detector breaks down?

    This is not just physical problems but mental ones too creating the image of a jail. Do we REALLY want kids to be comfortable in a jail like environment where everything is strictly controlled? Then they get out in the big wide world and find life is far from it and can’t handle not being in a confined environment?

    Also what about bottle necks? That’s where shootings will occur next like the airport in Europe where a checkpoint was blown up so their answer? Make another checkpoint further away which posts the same issue! Geez why didn’t I think of that! 😛

  10. Kyle says:

    The best security is the invisible kind where you have under covered (armed) cops with concealed carry and you never know where they will exactly be by changing their shift patterns so students intending on shooting it out can’t follow them and figure the weak kinks. Until 9/11 Disneyland never had and still doesn’t need metal detectors they have invisible police. You know those cardboard houses in Toon Town? Chances are they have an undercover officer behind one of them with a secret door only openable from that side.

    Now schools shouldn’t go to the lengths of Disneyland either but the focus should be on people and positive relationships not machines doing the work. Someone at the top should evaluate whether a threat is likely based on other circumstances or just a prank and no further action needed.

    Bad guys NEVER announce their true intentions ahead of time so why listen to fake ones? When a bad guy will bring something to school they are not going to telephone and say “Hi I’m coming in at 9:00 and going to blow up 2nd period in the chemistry lab at Whatever High in RedNeck USA. Yeeeeeeeeeeeeee Haaaaaaaaw! Shoves TNT thru the telephone wire which the TNT comes out the receiving end like in Donald Duck cartoons and explodes in your ear. HA HA HA HA Have fun bozos!” Click beep beep beep.

    No they do not do that. Those are just attention seeking brats thinking they are being funny and want a day off of school and know people will lose their minds cause nobody evaluates threats anymore. They just react.

    If we didn’t react always right away the number of false threats would drop sharply once the suspects figure out they are not getting what they want anymore and wind up going to jail with no reaction from the press other then an informative news blurb by the Associate Press.

  11. Al zakir says:

    Thanks for sharing.

  12. Caleb Jurgena says:

    If the argument against metal detectors, and bag searches is truly the issue of funding than that is ridiculous. No expense should be too much when it comes to the safety of students that are forced to go to school in an unsafe environment. Unparalleled amounts of violence are occurring in the terms of mass shootings in America, and the lack of response by the American government as a whole is horrifying. I am in high school, I have worried about going to school due to the never before seen rates of school shootings, and I believe that metal detectors would be a great first step when it comes to the safety of students, however, this does not solve the problem completely.

  13. urmom says:

    I DISGRRE

  14. No name avalible says:

    Thank you for the info. Me and my partner needed it for a project.

  15. Bill says:

    A few weeks ago we had a prank caller that said we had a school shooter, wouldn’t have happened if we had metal detectors!

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