3 states are testing out drones as a way to stop school shootings : NPR

Schools in Georgia, Florida and Colorado plan to deploy a new school safety device: drones.

Transcript

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

With the start of the academic year, several schools in Georgia, Florida and Colorado are testing out new safety devices – drones. They’re designed to confront a school shooter before police arrive. The drones can deploy strobe lights, sirens and pepper gel. They can break windows, and as a last resort, they can ram into a threat.

JUSTIN MARSTON: The drones live in boxes that look like air-conditioning boxes up near the ceiling, similar to the sprinkler system.

MARTIN: That’s Justin Marston. He’s CEO of Mithril Defense, which makes the Campus Guardian Angel drone system for schools.

MARSTON: And they only come out when a teacher or member of staff has said that there’s an imminent threat to life. And then they’re flown by our elite drone pilots, who are based in Austin, under the direction of our tactical teams.

MARTIN: Marston says drones can move faster than a human officer on-site can and take greater risks. And he says schools will provide his team with live security camera footage, which they’ll use to support officers responding to the scene in real time.

MARSTON: And we talk to them through an earpiece so they know what they’re walking into, and we want to degrade that shooter as much as possible to minimize the chance that an officer makes a mistake in the heat of the moment.

MARTIN: To help us assess this technology, we called Kenneth Trump. He’s president of the consulting group National School Safety and Security Services. He has a doctorate in education and a long background in school security. And for the record, he’s not related to the president. I asked Mr. Trump what he thinks of drones in schools.

KENNETH TRUMP: It’s well-intended, but I’m concerned that it’s not well thought out for a pre-K through 12 education system. The best school security systems walk the hallways, know the kids and can make decisions in real time. The bottom line is schools are not battlefields.

MARTIN: What I really think I hear you saying is that relationships are actually the most important school safety device – the relationships between the kids and the adults and the kids and each other.

TRUMP: That’s absolutely accurate. A million dollars spent on technology won’t compensate for weak supervision, a lack of connectedness and relationships with kids, limited support services for kids or the inability to intervene directly on-site to prevent an incident before it escalates to violence.

MARTIN: To that end, like, a board member of a Colorado school that is implementing the drones told The Colorado Sun that they’re meant to bridge that gap before the cops get there. What about that argument?

TRUMP: I understand the intention, but nothing beats the human on the front lines – the school resource officers in our schools. And there’s no guarantee that this is going to work beyond demonstrations, and the potential unintended consequences are really too great.

MARTIN: Do you see a tendency on the part of schools to try to lean into technology as a solution to what you are identifying as relationship problems?

TRUMP: Absolutely. And that often results in target-hardening. There’s a role for some technology, certainly. But what’s happened now is this is an industry that’s multibillion – with a B – dollars a year. Administrators are bombarded with all this marketing of promises that many times are questionable. But if we had a solution, we wouldn’t be having this conversation now because this complex, wicked problem would have been solved decades ago.

MARTIN: That’s Kenneth Trump of the consulting group National School Safety and Security Services. For his part, CEO Justin Marston notes that Campus Guardian Angel has been tested in joint exercises with a Texas school district and the FBI.

MARSTON: Whenever we’ve done a demonstration with law enforcement, every one of the officers who has seen this live would absolutely want drones as their wingmen.

MARTIN: And one day he sees potential for the drones to expand beyond schools, saying they can help, quote, “anywhere there’s a mass gathering,” unquote.

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