Leon County Schools principals, staff with Tallahassee State College’s Public Safety Institute, and members of local law enforcement agencies filled the media center at Amos P. Godby High School June 17 to watch new safety technology at work.
During a school safety summit held June 16-17, the long anticipated RADAR (Real-time Alert, Detection and Response) system was launched in real time.
The system will be implemented on the campus this fall on the state’s dime. The Florida Department of Education will pay $557,000 to launch the program at high schools in three school districts.
The system integrates ZeroEyes AI weapon detection, Ark Strategic’s 3D Campus mapping and Campus Guardian Angel’s non-lethal drones to deploy in the event an active shooter is on campus.
“This is just one piece of a prevention ecosystem we are trying to build in this district,” LCS Chief Jimmy Williams told the Tallahassee Democrat.
The system will do more than disengage an armed shooter. It will serve as prevention for those thinking about bringing a weapon on campus.
“We hope these drones rot in their boxes,” Campus Guardian Angel representative Taylor Worthington said. “These are only to be used in the worst of the worst situations. I would hope that by having these here we don’t ever have to use them.”
Due to network issues during the demonstration, the real time response wasn’t launched as smoothly as it will be in an actual emergency. To run the test, the system was remotely connected to a separate Wi-Fi system since it wouldn’t complete the call to law enforcement, a crucial step in the process for a real emergency.
“If this equipment and technology gets a student or anyone else to think twice about bringing a weapon on campus, then we won,” Williams said.
At one point, a volunteer brandished a fake assault rifle in the school hallways and in less than five seconds, devices connected to the ZeroEyes technology were triggered and ringing in the room. A screen set up for the demonstration in the media center showed how the AI weapons detection identified the weapon and the location of the alleged suspect.
As the volunteer entered the media center with the weapon, another camera triggered an alert. Using Ark Strategic’s 3D mapping system, law enforcement would be able to immediately locate the threat on campus by following a highlighted map that provides details about access points, including locked gate codes.
After a school staff member with authorized access approves the deployment, Campus Guardian Angel sends drones into the library, where they are operated remotely by trained pilots to respond.
The drones use strobe lighting, sirens, pepper spray and pepper balls to disarm the suspect.
For now, the RADAR program is only being rolled out in Leon County because of the costs. It is also planned for Broward and Volusia counties.
“If the state doesn’t fund this we’re out of business on it so we have it for one year,” Williams said.
Godby was chosen by the state to launch the program in Tallahassee, and the school’s leadership helped get the program started.
Principal Marcus Scott, who was appointed to Godby by Superintendent Rocky Hanna in May, said the program reinforces safety as a priority on the school campus.
“I’m excited about safety being No. 1 priority on our campus and anything we can do to keep our campus more secure I’m all for it,” Scott told the Tallahassee Democrat. “I’m especially excited about the drones because they’re not going to launch unless our safety and security department actually approves it. The top safety mechanism on our campus is our people.”Alaijah Cross covers children & families for the Tallahassee Democrat. She can be reached at abrown@tallahassee.com.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Godby High tests new drone system to stop shooters
Reporting by Alaijah Cross, Tallahassee Democrat / Tallahassee Democrat
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Alaijah Cross, Tallahassee Democrat | USA TODAY Network
