Verkada environmental sensors
The places a camera must never go — toilets, changing rooms, boarding corridors — monitored without a single image.
Monitoring where surveillance is not an option
This is the product that solves a problem schools genuinely have and had no lawful way to address.
- No camera, no microphone recording, no images. The sensor reports readings, not pictures. That is the entire point.
- Vape index. A likelihood score from a set of onboard sensors, alerting named staff when it rises.
- More than vaping. Air quality, CO₂, temperature, humidity, noise level and occupancy — data that is useful every week, not only during an incident.
- Alerts to the right people. The pastoral team gets the toilet block and the time, and can walk to it.
Three sensors
The differences matter, and a quotation should name which one.
| Model | Detects | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| SV21 | Temperature, humidity, CO₂, heat index, mould risk, tamper | Classrooms and offices — air quality only |
| SV23 | SV21 plus vape index, TVOC, AQI, particulates, noise, motion | Toilets and changing rooms — the school workhorse |
| SV25 | SV23 plus ambient light, pressure, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde | Where air quality genuinely matters, and boarding |
How to write the alert into your policy
Settle this at the survey and the sensor works for years without ever causing you an argument.
The vape index scores likelihood from one to a hundred, and it is built to be a prompt: it puts a member of staff in the right corridor while it is still happening. That immediacy is where the value is.
So write the policy the way it is designed to work — the sensor sends someone to look, and the sanction rests on what they find. That is Verkada’s own guidance, it is what the schools who get the most out of these do, and it keeps you on solid ground with a parent because the case rests on a person.
Specify it for what it is: an air-quality sensor. It sits alongside your fire alarm rather than as any part of it, and outside the fire strategy.
The privacy question, answered before it is asked
A sensor in a toilet is still processing information about people. Getting this right protects the school.
Tell people
Staff, pupils and parents should know sensors are there and what they do. A sensor discovered is a sensor that becomes a story.
Write it down
A short DPIA covering what is collected, why, who sees it and how long it is kept. We will give you a starting point.
No cameras nearby
Verkada's own guidance suggests cameras outside such areas, never inside. We will not fit one that looks at a toilet door in a way that identifies who went in.
Decide the response
An alert with no agreed response is noise. Who walks, what they say, and what is recorded should be settled before go-live.
Where they go in a school
Almost always the toilet blocks that already appear in your behaviour log.
- The problem toilets first. You already know which ones they are.
- Changing rooms. Where a camera is never acceptable and incidents still happen.
- Boarding corridors. Noise and occupancy, without surveillance of pupils' living space.
- A classroom or two. CO₂ and temperature data that helps the estates argument as much as the pastoral one.
Questions we get asked
Does it detect what is being vaped?
Can we discipline a pupil on the strength of an alert?
Will it pick up an aerosol or a hand dryer?
Where these facts come from
Every capability on this page is taken from Verkada’s own current documentation, and the sources are listed at the foot of the page. Where we could not verify something we have left it out rather than repeat it from a brochure. SEG Core Ltd is a Verkada Gold Partner and reseller; SEGsafe is not affiliated with or operated by Verkada Inc.
Sources
Everything on this page is taken from these. Checked 25 September 2026.
Start with a survey, not a quotation.
We walk the site, look at what you already have, and tell you what would genuinely help — including where the answer is that you do not need anything.
Book a free site survey Call 01727 822 833