School shootingShooting-detection system will help police locate a shooter within a school building
For the past two years, law enforcement officials in Methuen, Massachusetts have been testing an active shooter detection system installed in a local school as part of the city’s threat detection program, which includes prevention and emergency training protocols for school staff and students. The $70,000 system includes dozens of small square panels equipped with infrared cameras and microphones. The system detects gunfire and identifies the exact location where the shooting occurred within the school building – then sends data about the incident to a command center.
For the past two years, law enforcement officials in Methuen, Massachusetts have been testing an active shooter detection system installed in a local school as part of the city’s threat detection program, which includes prevention and emergency training protocols for school staff and students. The system provides real-time data on the location of shots fired inside a building, thereby eliminating the time police officers spend in rooms and closets in search of the shooter. “Nobody would know what’s going on inside the school (in absence of a detection system),” police Chief Joseph Solomon said. “Police response would have been delayed by minutes.”
Eagle Tribune reports that on the detection system’s floor plan of the two-story school are two dozen green dots, representing sensors in the walls and ceilings of the building. At a live test run of the system on Tuesday, a Methuen police lieutenant fired a gun filled with blanks at different locations. Soon, dots lit up on the floor plan near the system’s media center and a text-message was automatically sent to the cellphones of the entire Methuen Police Department and selected school and city officials.
The $70,000 Guardian Indoor Gunshot Detection System includes dozens of small square panels equipped with infrared cameras and microphones which send data to a command center when gunfire is detected. “It’s new to the market, but each panel has $50 million of research in it,” said Christian Connors, president of Shooter Detection Systems of Rowley. The company provided the city the system at no cost, requiring that Methuen used its police officers and equipment for testing and training. The system does not need monitoring after initial setup and testing, but the sensors have a 10-year lifespan and require replacement or upgrade at that point. Other than that, “we don’t need to be involved,” Connors said. “It’s a stand alone system.”
The U.S. military has used the system in both Afghanistan and Iraq to detect gunfire and to alert combat troops. “It has worked very well for our troops and has saved many lives that otherwise would have been lost,” said Congresswoman Niki Tsongas (D-Massachusetts), who serves on the U.S. House Armed Services Committee and represents the Methuen area.
