To strengthen a customer’s oversight of their campuses and sites, Verkada Guest now offers an optional Security Screening feature. Within Guest, administrators can enable additional screening for sex offenders, allowing staff to deny entry and alert relevant personnel via email and SMS.

Enable Security Screening feature

The Security Screening feature is an option for each Guest Type defined under a specified Guest site.

You must have Guest Administrator or Guest Site Manager permissions to edit this feature.

In Verkada Command, go to the All Products menu and select Guest.
On the left side, click Guest Settings.
On the Guest Settings > Organization screen, select Guest Types > Manage Guest Types.
Select the Guest Type that should be required to complete the security screen.
Check the Security Screening box. This should automatically enable the Deny List and Check Offender Database checkboxes, and require this Guest Type to complete the security screen.
At the top right, click X to close the site settings.
Repeat the last two steps for any other Guest Type that should be required to complete the security screen.

From this point on, these Guest Types are prompted to scan their driver's license or US or state-issued ID.

Guest check-in experience

Whether a guest uses the iPad kiosk (see list of supported iPads) or scans a QR code on their mobile device, if the guest selects a reason for visit that requires the security screen, they are prompted to consent to scanning their photo ID.

If the lighting in the area of the iPad kiosk is poor, at the top right of the screen, the guest can tap the lightning bolt icon to temporarily brighten the screen of the iPad to better illuminate the ID card.

While precision isn't required, the ID card should be centered in the frame, take up approximately half of the framed area, and be held steady.

Once detected, the ID is scanned automatically and the following check-in page is prefilled with the guest's name.

The guest is then able to proceed with the rest of the check-in process.

Offender Match Validation feature

If there is no match, the guest continues with the check-in process as usual. If there is a potential match, the guest prompts the front desk staff to review the event.

Currently, the Offender Match Violation feature only works with US citizens.

The front desk personnel must:

Visually inspect the ID card provided by the guest against the information returned from the aggregated local/state sex offender registries.
Indicate whether it is a match.
Provide final confirmation.

Depending on the match outcome:

If the visitor does not match the offender, then the front desk personnel selects No and the check-in continues.
If the visitor does match the offender, then the front desk personnel selects Yes > Confirm. The guest is then denied entry at the iPad kiosk (or their mobile browser) and, if the Security Screening box is checked, Verkada Command notifies the host and/or other contacts, as configured on the Guest site.

However, if it's necessary to admit someone who is flagged as a known offender, the Guest administrator can click Allow guest to enter.

The guest badge is printed and the entry log reads “Guest was allowed to enter by [user name]”.

Update Denied Entry settings

If a guest is denied entry to the site, the iPad kiosk displays a denied entry message and notifies specific contacts, as configured in the Guest site settings.

To change these settings for a particular Guest site:

In Command, on the left side, select Guest Settings.
On the Guest Settings page, click the drop-down menu and select the correct site.
Scroll down to Staff notifications and Denied Entry sections to update the contact list and entry denied message.

Recommended. If your organization has multiple Guest sites, make sure you set these settings appropriately for each Guest site.

Privacy and data retention

The Security Screening feature maintains privacy with several strict security measures:

At the user level: Guest maintains strict user roles and permissions.
- Guest Administrators and Guest Site Managers have access to select the security screen feature.
- Guest Site Viewers have the ability to check-in guests, view guest logs, and confirm potential matches within the Guest interface.
At the product level: Only the full name and date of birth are sent to the third-party vendor conducting the US sex offender search.
- The third-party database provider deletes the information used to conduct the search once completed.
- No imagery from Verkada Cameras or the Verkada Guest kiosk is used to do biometrics searches against registered sex offender lists.
At the infrastructure level: All customer data is stored in Verkada’s platform.
- Data is not shared across customer data sets.
- All communications to the system are fully encrypted when in transit and at rest.

Access the Security & Data setting

Verkada Guest saves confirmed offender records in Command for 30 days by default (1–90 days supported).

To access this retention setting:

In Command, on the left side, click Guest Settings.
On the Guest Settings page:
1. Ensure that Organization is selected.
2. Select (or scroll down to) Security & Data and set the Expire after value accordingly.

List of supported iPads

iPad Model	Generation	Facetime Camera Res (MP)	Security Screens?	Supports iOS 14.6+?
iPad Pro	6th	12	Yes	Yes
iPad Pro	4th	12	Yes	Yes
iPad Air	5th	12	Yes	Yes
iPad	10th	12	Yes	Yes
iPad	9th	12	Yes	Yes
iPad mini	6th	12	Yes	Yes
iPad Pro	5th	12	Yes	Yes
iPad Pro	3rd	12	Yes	Yes
iPad Pro	4th	7	No	Yes
iPad Pro	3rd	7	No	Yes
iPad Pro	2nd	7	No	Yes
iPad Pro	2nd	7	No	Yes
iPad Pro	1st	7	No	Yes
iPad Pro		7	No	Yes
iPad Air	4th	7	No	Yes
iPad Air	3rd	7	No	Yes
iPad Mini	5th	7	No	Yes
iPad Pro		5	No	Yes
iPad Pro	1st	1.2	No	Yes
iPad Air	2	1.2	No	Yes
iPad Air	1st	1.2	No	No
iPad	8th	1.2	No	Yes
iPad	7th	1.2	No	Yes
iPad	6th	1.2	No	Yes
iPad	5th	1.2	No	Yes
iPad Mini	4	1.2	No	Yes
iPad Mini	3	1.2	No	No
iPad Mini	2	1.2	No	No

If you have not yet set up Verkada Guest, see Get Started with Verkada Guest.