The system is designed to better verify on-field access and other restricted areas in the stadium, Andrea Schultz, the NFL’s director of strategic security programs, explained during the Stadium Managers Association seminar on February 13th, including the NFL’s effort to flag illegal gambling within the teams, Venues Now reported.
For the 2024 season, the NFL plans to roll out a new centralized credential system league-wide, tied to facial recognition software that’s more efficient and effectively consolidates the multiple numbers and symbols attached to game badges.
When credential badges containing the person’s digital photo and a bar code is scanned, the technology compares it to a real-time photo taken of the individual at the security checkpoint. In turn, the process triggers the scanner to turn green or red, which determines whether the person has access to the space in question.
In addition to simplifying the process, it helps better identify fake credentials, which have proliferated over time, Schultz said.
The outlet wrote
A few teams have been piloting the new system already since last season, such as the Cleveland Browns, using technology developed by Wicket. It was trialed at the most recent Super Bowl LVIII.
The credentials are viewed through a color-coded system viewed on a monitor by stadium and security staff, determining who is who and where they should belong, helping to decode who has falsified authentication. Fake badges are usually facsimiles printed by people at home.
It [worked] amazing at Super Bowl. It empowers the staff standing there saying no to this person who’s saying, ‘Don’t you know who I am and why I’m supposed to be here?’ The reality is they don’t know who you are or what your function is. But if your badge shows red, you can use the phone and they’ll fix it for you.
What we try to do at Super Bowl is touch every credential and train people what it should feel like. My Signal app (for instant messaging) was blowing up all day long with reports of people with fake credentials. I kept asking myself, ‘Are there more fake credentials or are we just catching more of them?’ The answer was that we’re catching more.
Schultz explained
Some NFL stadiums have already been introducing other robust security measures. Last year Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, home to the Atlanta Falcons, debuted a security robodog with facial recognition that peruses the stands and field.
In December the Carolina Panthers announced they would be introducing facial recognition ticketing.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
I mention this because it further demonstrates the sheer amount of tracking and surveillance that is everywhere, especially in stadiums and entertainment centers, or anywhere there are large gatherings – “They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets:” (Lamentations 4:18(a)).
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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And the fans will comply with no complaints and little do they know they are being set up for the AC in the near future. His work is being done for him before he arrives.