Jonesboro, AR – Jonesboro Right Now – Educational leaders, legislators, and law enforcement gathered Thursday morning to demonstrate a non-lethal, drone-based active shooter suppression system.
The drone company Campus Guardian Angel, based in Austin, TX, partnered with Jonesboro-based Proventus, a security training and crisis preparedness company, to bring the drone system to more schools across the country. It is not used anywhere in Arkansas; however, it has been employed in districts in Florida and Georgia.
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The drones are equipped with sirens, strobe lights, and pepper spray to incapacitate a shooter. If that fails, the drones can also ram into the shooter at up to 60 mph. The drones are fast and maneuverable, which company representatives said makes them difficult to shoot down. They are usually deployed in boxes of three across a campus, allowing for rapid response.
“We want to respond in five seconds, confront the shooter in 15 seconds, and degrade or incapacitate in 60 seconds,” said Justin Marston, founder and CEO of Campus Guardian Angel. “As is typical in these mass shootings, the shooting was over in 120 seconds. These things, they happen very quickly.”
In the event of an active shooter, the drones can scan ahead for the shooter and lead law enforcement to them, allowing for safe detention of the individual. Officials said the system can also be used to lead victims to safe escape routes and deliver medical supplies to critically wounded people.
Drones are piloted by the top drone racers in the nation, who are based in Austin. Additionally, the leadership of Proventus and Campus Guardian Angel has law enforcement and/or military backgrounds.
Marston said Thursday’s demonstration aimed to show the system’s effectiveness to law enforcement, educators, and government officials.
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“There are several hundred school shootings every year across America. It is a matter of time before there’s another one in Arkansas,” Marston told JRN. “Let’s be proactive. How many days would you send your kids to school without a sprinkler system? Not very many, right? So, why not do this now? Why wait until more kids have lost their lives?”
Marston added that it ultimately came down to funding when it came to installing the drones in school districts.
While private schools may be able to fund the purchase themselves, public schools, which rely on public funding, will require legislators to push for the system, he said. The system costs $1 per square foot to set up, and then $0.25 per square foot a year. Currently, the drone systems are manned during school hours, although Marston said the plan is to have teams manning the systems 24/7 sometime next year.
Several Jonesboro school districts were present at the event, including the Westside Consolidated School District, whose Superintendent Chris George attended. George was a high school senior during the 1998 Westside Middle School shooting, which resulted in the deaths of one teacher and four students, along with injuring 10 people.
He said for Westside especially, he and his security officer regularly meet with the district’s principals after a shooting event occurs somewhere in the country to determine how to prepare for similar situations.
As far as implementing the system in the district, he said right now it was too early to tell. He added that currently, the district has school resource officers in all three of its buildings, which sit close together, allowing for quick response times.
“Within a minute, minute-and-a-half, we could have three armed SROs inside a location. Those are things we practice each year. But anytime you can shorten the gap, that’s obviously something that needs to be considered,” he said. “This is kind of in the infancy stage, and it’s something that I know we’re definitely going to be following.”
Jonesboro Police Department Chief Rick Elliott said the system, if implemented, would help not only responding officers but also those in command positions. Those in command can view drone footage and digital maps of each school’s layout, along with officers’ body camera footage.
“It’s a great way for anybody to take command of a situation to say, ‘Hey, this is what needs to be done.’ Of course, in a big situation like that, when we’re coordinating rescue efforts for the fire department, fire chief or his designee would be side-by-side with me and coordinating all that with our EMS partners,” Elliott said. “It just kind of speeds up the process of getting threats stopped and help to those that need help.”
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