The Mittleman Jewish Community Center has been a vibrant center of Jewish life in the Greater Portland area for more than 100 years. Their facilities include meeting spaces, a ballroom, a full-service fitness center, and a kosher restaurant.

Mitigating the threat landscape with ID scanning

Sadly, threats against religious organizations such as JCC’s, synagogues, and mosques have increased 40% in recent years according to the Anti Defamation League. So Mittleman JCC was keen to find a solution to improve security while continuing to foster a welcoming and inclusive environment. 

“We sought to verify identity of folks entering the building, and save that information in our cloud database. We also wanted to include screenings against the sex offender registry to provide extra piece of mind given that we have a child care center and are a family friendly campus.”

Beth Germain, CFO of Mittleman JCC

Mittleman JCC & Portland Jewish Academy Requirements

• Read 2D barcodes from physical and digital copies of US government IDs 
• Capture the image on the ID
• Store ID data and image to their secure database for search by name, or visually browse based on photos
• Perform a third party check against nationwide sex offender registries in <3 seconds or less
• Immediately alert the staff if the ID is potentially fraudulent, or the guest does not pass a sex offender check

Benefits of VeriScan

In addition to scanning and verification, VeriScan performs ID parsing, taking fields stored in the barcode and converting them to readable data, which is quickly aggregated with 100% accuracy. This allows Mittleman JCC to easily collect names and demographic information about all of their guests.

 While the Mittleman team looked at multiple vendors, they ultimately selected IDScan.net due to frequency of updates to the sex offender registry that provide the most up-to-date information on their visitors. Updates to the fake ID detection algorithms also ensure the system maintains a high degree of accuracy even as license and ID formats change.

Outcome

Mittleman has scanned more than 7,359 IDs at the entrance to their JCC and School since installing the M280’s in 2021. Every visitor is additionally checked against national sex offender registries – this has flagged several patrons who were immediately flagged and prevented from entering the campus.

The additional layer of security has helped increase team and visitor feelings of security in an increasingly uncertain climate. IDScan.net has noticed a marked increase in ID scanning interest from JCCs and synagogues across the nation in response to rising security concerns. We are proud to help keep the Jewish community safe.

IDScan.net solutions for the education industry

ID scanning, visitor management, and school security software have become more important than ever. Our easy-to-use ID scanners for schools and VeriScan platform will help your front desk better verify and manage guests, keeping your staff and students safe. Primary schools, high schools, colleges, universities, and educational institutions of all sizes use our ID scanning systems to help keep their schools safe and secure. Check IDs against the Sex Offender Registry in your state or jurisdiction. Results are returned in <10 seconds. If there is a match, the returned result often even includes a photo, allowing you to confirm the identity of the individual on-site at your school.