Camtronics' Lock-down System To Improve Police Response Time For School
DETROIT -- Camtronics, a security systems integrator in Detroit, said Monday it had collaborated with the pre-K-through-8 All Saints Catholic School and the Canton Police Department to implement a new lock-down system reducing response time in the event of a campus threat.
Due to recent events and increased threats in schools, All Saints, which enrolls 540 students and a total of 50 teachers, counselors, and administrators, has taken action in order to keep their students and faculty safe.
The newly installed system includes 70 audible alarms, 42 wired lockdown pull-stations, an outdoor wireless system with four lockdown transmitters, access control integration to control perimeter doors and automatic law enforcement notification, camera access and door control.
This system takes multiple threat assessments into consideration for lockdown, including; student with a gun in-hand, active shooter, forcible entry, violence or assault, imminent threat and police directive.
"The system was very easy to implement," said Lt. Scott Hilden of the Canton police. "Camtronics installed an antenna on the exterior of the building, ran some cable through our server room and then directly into our dispatch center. In our dispatch area we now have an audible and visual indicator that will go off if the school goes into lockdown."
Hilden said the system offers several benefits: "First, the system does an immediate notification directly into dispatch and could save precious seconds during a response. As you know in many active shooter incidents, seconds, not minutes, can save lives. Second, the ability to view the school cameras can help our dispatchers determine what type of problem exists and where to direct our officers upon arrival at the school. One more benefit is that it can be activated from many areas within the school. This insures that if administrators cannot make a verbal announcement other staff members could activate the lockdown."
All Saints principal Kristen Strausbaugh noted that "our school was already in the process of updating our alarm system with Camtronics when the school shooting in Newtown occurred. Based on the released information, TV coverage, and feedback from our staff and parents, we decided to put together a crisis team to re-evaluate our current emergency procedures. Our school was already a locked-down facility during the day and we already had a system in place to buzz parents and visitors into the building. Knowing how quickly lives were lost, our biggest concern became the amount of time it took our school office to notify teachers to lock-down and then notifying the police. Since our school office is located in the center of the building, addressing the time lapse and making sure we could immediately notify staff and police of an issue became top priority."
While working with Camtronics to implement this system, All Saints wanted to cover many objectives, such as minimizing the emotional stress on the children, creating a rapid lockdown activation network, establishing a school-wide audible lock-down alarm, expediting sanctuary assembly, maximize threat-delay tactics, accelerate law enforcement notification with acknowledgement, and release tactical resources and control to law enforcement. With this in mind, they were able to create a system that minimizes threat by maximizing the control that both the school and police station have over the building in the face of danger.
Training was a top priority when implementing this system into the school.
"We have a training model in place which will provide different types of training, depending on need, for staff, students, and parents," Strausbaugh said. "Staff training is much more involved and our crisis team has been in direct contact with Canton Police to ensure we are offering the best training possible. We have also had Canton Police come into the building to speak with our students regarding this system and answer questions. Drill practice will also continue to be established each year to ensure staff is comfortable with the protocol.
For more information about the Camtronics new Advanced Lock-down System, contact Camtronics at www.camsecure.com.
For more information about All Saints Catholic School, visit www.allsaintscs.com or call (734) 459-2490.
