A Burlington County high school has become the first school in the nation to implement new anti-school shooter technology.
Rancocas Valley Regional High School will now utilize the
ZeroEyes threat detection system to be installed on all of the school’s security cameras. School officials say that with the perceived increase of school shootings around the country, it was time to improve safety.
“Our parents send their children to school and expect them to be safe every day,” says Superintendent Dr. Chris Heilig.
ZeroEyes is a Philadelphia-based company started by former Navy Seals. The software program connects directly to a school’s surveillance system.
"It is actively being watched by artificial intelligence and it's searching for guns at all moments,” says ZeroEyes COO Rob Huberty.
If an armed assailant were to show up at the school, the program sends an alert with their location so first responders could get advanced noticed. Huberty says that a notification can be sent in under three seconds.
"Once I get that alert, I’m going to notify central communications. If they have an already been notified themselves and I’m going to respond to that threat,” says Mount Holly Police School Resource Officer Deborah Murillo.
Murillo says that she has been training with a team from ZeroEyes for months by going over the more than 200 camera locations on the campus.
"It’s another layer with the other things that we already have in place to make this the safest place possible,” Heilig says.
It costs the district about $15,000 per year for the service.