Security Sales & Integration June 2021 - 26

SMARTS & PARTS
IT Intelligence by William Lowe
Evaluating
Gunshot Detection
for Schools
▶ SINCE 2010, the United States has averaged
15 lives lost to mass shootings annually in our
school system. Th e average may have been higher
if it were not for the COVID-19 pandemic,
which kept our children and teachers out of
school last year. According to the FBI, between
the years 2000 and 2018, 74% of mass shootings
in education occurred at or below the 12th
grade level.
The gunshot detectors will be protecting lives
much like a fi re alarm system's manual pull
station - pull stations do not prevent fi res
from starting, but hopefully they are activated
early enough to save as many lives as possible.
Th is past April, President Biden stated, " Gun
William Lowe is Systems
Design Engineer at General
Security Services Corp.
26
violence in this country is an epidemic. " It has become
so bad, more and more schools are starting
to implement gunshot detection technology within
their halls. Th e gunshot detectors will be protecting
lives much like a fi re alarm system's manual
pull station - pull stations do not prevent fi res
from starting, but hopefully they are activated early
enough to save as many lives as possible.
How does gunshot detection work? A sensor
is used to listen for the acoustic properties
unique to the sound created when a gun is fi red
and then trigger an alarm condition, usually auto
dispatching the police. In most single purpose
devices, this is all the gunshot detector does. An
alternative to single purpose devices would be a
camera with gunshot analytics built-in like Hanwha
Techwin's Wisenet X Series cameras. Th e X
Series feature a variety of license-free audio analytics,
which provide enhanced live monitoring
and forensic review. Th e sound classifi cations the
cameras can recognize are gunshots, explosions,
screams and glass-break events.
Security Sales & Integration JUNE 2021
WilliamL@gssc.net
Martinsville City Public Schools in Virginia
recently raised close to $300,000 in funding to
install a dedicated gunshot detection system in
its school division, according to T.J. Slaughter,
Martinsville City Public Schools' director of
school safety and emergency management.
" As I explain it to people, it helps speed up
the reporting to law enforcement, " says Slaughter.
" Once gun fi re is detected, an alert is sent
to our 911 center and a text message is sent to
our city police administrators and patrol supervisors.
Most of this is done before anyone can
even think about picking up a phone and dialing
911 due to a chaotic situation, thus improving
response time. "
A dedicated gunshot detection system, like the
one Martinsville City Public Schools is installing,
has added benefi ts like being able to pinpoint the
location of a shooter through triangulation. Adding
both cameras and gunshot detectors can be costly
for any customer. While not able to triangulate, a
dual-purpose cameras can track the direction of a
shooter if they are installed throughout a school.
Another negative of a single purpose device
besides added cost is its accuracy. A recent news
article in the Chicago Sun-Times shares an analysis
of close to two years of data. Th e MacArthur
Justice Center at the Northwestern University
School of Law shows one of the country's top
gunshot detection companies has an estimated
86% false alarm rate.
Th ough gunshot analytics are certainly not
perfect - a car backfi ring or a book being
slammed on the ground could trigger a false
alert - the idea is to use these alerts and have a
human immediately review the video to verify a
threat, or lack thereof.
As with using a central station for intrusion
video verifi cation, instead of automatically dispatching
police, integrators can work with their
central stations as a go-between to only dispatch
when video supports escalating the situation for
immediate response.
So far this year, we already matched the number
of deaths from school shootings as we did in
all of 2020, according to EducationWeek. While
school shootings are unfortunately becoming
common stance in our country, implementing
a gunshot detection solution could help prevent
undue casualties by being the fi rst link in the
chain of events to dispatch police and warn staff
of the imminent danger to our children.
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Security Sales & Integration June 2021

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