Company Says Its Drones Can Stop School Shooters
In a new approach to school safety, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has approved a pilot program that will test a drone-based response system in three school districts, Newsweek reports. The system, known as Campus Guardian Angel, is developed by a Texas-based company and aims to rapidly respond to school shooting incidents.
The drones are stored in secure, on-campus charging stations and are remotely operated by a team in Texas. According to the company, they can be airborne within five seconds of an alarm being triggered. Once deployed, the drones provide live video feeds to first responders and, if necessary, can fire nonlethal rounds at an attacker.
“In a school shooting, most deaths happen in the first 120 seconds,” said company founder and CEO Justin Marston, in an interview with CBS News. “It’s really about how quickly you can engage the shooter before they’ve had the chance to kill a lot of children.”
Marston likens the system to a fire sprinkler system—always in place and ready to activate when needed. “We’ve got the drones in charging boxes, ready to go, and we can fly them on an encrypted channel over the internet,” he told Newsweek. “It’s a bit like The Matrix, where an agent can jump into the nearest person and immediately be active. We’re kind of like that—but we’re the good guys.”
The company says its goal is to have drones responding within five seconds, engaging the threat within 15 seconds, and neutralizing the shooter in under a minute. The system reportedly costs about $1,000 per month for a school of 500 students and is already being installed in four Texas school districts and one university. Florida has allocated $557,000 for its trial implementation.
About Post Author
