New software gives first responders an edge in school security

Source: Dayton Daily News, OhioAug.迷你倉價錢 23--WEST CARROLLTON -- First-responders to a violent incident at any of seven local school districts will have access to blueprints, photos of classrooms and key personnel and streaming video with the implementation of new technology designed to keep schools more secure.From Chardon to Sandy Hook to this week's incident in DeKalb, Ga., school security is at the top of mind for parents and administrators. To address the issue, Ohio and the private sector have launched several programs to bolster school security.Locally, the incidents have prompted districts to install secure entrances and surveillance cameras, train staff in new procedures and require badges embedded with electronic chips this summer, the Dayton Daily News reported earlier this month.The latest technology, which has been implemented in West Carrollton and is in process of being implemented at the other six schools allows dispatchers to have real-time information to share with the responders as they are speeding to the scene. Northmont, New Lebanon, Brookville and Trotwood-Madison in Montgomery County are using the same software system as West Carrollton. Kings Local in Warren County and National Trail in Preble County also are using the system."The dispatcher ... will be telling them what is happening and where," Superintendent Rusty Clifford said Thursday. "The dispatcher will be seeing the streaming video and have access to all the plans and pictures, relaying them to the first responders."The technology may address concerns about school safety plans filed with the Ohio Attorney General Office. Districts have been required to file the plans with the attorney general since 2007. However, Attorney General Mike DeWine recently called many of the plans, "useless.""One of the problems is the plans are useless to law enforcement because they have to respond in a short time and the information they need may be buried in a hundred page report," he said Thursday.West Carrolton Deputy Police Chief Doug Woodard said the technology will help guide first responders in these volatile situations."The real-time intelligence gives us an insight into what's happening now. Before we would be getting information from phone calls that might be two minutes old," West Carrollton Deputy Police Chief Doug Woodard said.Instead of hitting the door and "going to where the noise is," officers and rescue workers will know exactly where to go and what they are facing, Clifford said."The officer will have more accurate intelligence: how many shooters; what they're armed with; and where they are," said Bill Parson, a retired Dayton police officer, now a security consultant for school districts and others. "That will allow them to get in the game quicker."The February 2012 Chardon High School shooting motivated the CEO of Lauren International, a former school board president, to work with Akron area school and law enforcement officials to repurpose one of its commercial security systems to something Ohio school districts and local law enforcement could afford and use.The NaviGate Prepared 迷你倉庫oftware, which the local districts are using, launched in late January and was donated to 23 Akron area school districts."We now have 85 school districts throughout the state using the system," said Thom Jones, a former high school principal and education consultant for Lauren. The company provides the software, while the local district gathers the information, installs the hardware and contacts local law enforcement, he said. Ohio districts can get the software and training for $3,000 the first year and $1,000 each subsequent year, he said, adding districts in fiscal emergency can get the software and training for free.West Carrollton staff spent the summer tracking down building blueprints, taking pictures of each classroom and hallways, and installing the high definition cameras throughout all seven buildings."This is an investment we made in the safety of our students and staff," Clifford said of the yet undetermined cost for the hardware and its installation.All of the staff has been trained in a violent intruder response program by Parsons. While unwilling to reveal the details of the training, Parsons said the staff was trained in four core skills to handle a situation and the intense pressure."It's an attitude that they can succeed, that the intruder does not hold all the cards. The intruder is not prepared for a group of people who have prepared for him," Parsons said.The Englewood Police Department soon will be monitoring the cameras in four Northmont elementary schools in the city and the one in Union."When you're responding, you have a host of tactical situations going through your mind based on the unknown," Sgt. Mike Lang said."With this kind of information you can pare down the situations. You get right down to the brass tacks and begin planning the response before you arrive."Chief Mark Brownfield said his dispatchers have had access to the security cameras at the Miami Valley Career Technology Center for five years. "When our dispatchers get a call, they've been able to call up the cameras and find out what is going on."Other districts are using state money to create links with a radio system that connects all first responders.The state General Assembly included $12 million in grant money in the two-year state budget for districts to install secure school entries and establish links with the state's Multi-Agency Radio Communications System that connects all first responders.Beavercreek schools plans to use some of that grant money to link each of its buildings to MARCS so that teachers and administrators can speak directly to first responders in an emergency.In addition to using state grants for the MARCS links, Beavercreek Superintendent Bill McGlothlin said the district will be purchasing with its own money a number of two-way radios also linked to MARCS. McGlothlin did not yet have a cost estimate on the radios, which would be given to key personnel in each building.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio) Visit the Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio) at .daytondailynews.com Distributed by MCT Information Services儲存