Security has always been tight in state office buildings, no ID or driver's license, usually means no access. But in the near future, the face of security will change.

"We currently have security guards in every building, " Jason Nairn, the director of security, said. "With the budget the way it is, this system will allow us to deploy security guards on the complex, but not in every building."

The gatekeepers -- or the security guards in the lobbies -- will now be replaced with machines that can check ID's, print visitor passes, and control who is in the building at all times.

"The new devices will electronically allow one person in at a time based on electronic reading from the card," Nairn said.

The price tag to install these in all nine office buildings tops $2.4 million, a deal Nairn said considering the savings for the state down the road.

"We expect to recover that in 3 to 5 years with security guard savings," he said.

So there will certainly be savings, but will this new process make it any safer? Some argue you lose important face to face interaction, while others say you cut out human error.

"This definitely will be a safe way of doing things," Nairn said. "No one can get passed the guard if there's a big crowd of people. It allows us to control lobby access better."

Not all security guards will be out work he said, a few will stick around in case of emergencies.

"If someone tries to climb on the machines, an alarm will sound and our central monitoring system will see that and a guard will be dispatched to assist," Nairn said.

It will be up to the state agency when they feel comfortable using the new system. It will take some time to learn, but all the machines will be installed by Oct. 1st.