Dec 29

Written by: Bret Rachlin
12/29/2009 12:08 PM

Earlier this month the New Jersey State Senate passed a bill, which will require schools to conduct school security drills to improve emergency preparedness (Source: PolitickerNJ.com, December 10, 2009, Girgenti-Ruiz Bill To Require Schools To Conduct Security Drills To Improve Emergency Preparedness Approved In Senate). Now schools will conduct a monthly security drill in addition to a monthly fire drill.  Back in May I reported on this bill's initiation from the New Jersey Senate Education Committee.

According to the article, the bill explains that a “security drill is specifically intended as an exercise to practice procedures to safely respond to an emergency situation such as a non-fire evacuation, lockdown, or active shooter situation. For the purposes of school security drills, the current law would be amended to allow public school teachers to lock doors and exits during a simulated emergency lockdown drill.”

Overall, New Jersey has taken a great step to ensuring that its schools are prepared as possible in the event of a school security emergency just as they are prepared for a fire. Now that security drills become common practice, New Jersey schools, as well as others, can utilize technology applications, such as video surveillance and access control, to assist them in emergency response. Consider the following three scenarios:

- Active shooter at a school – Video provides insight into the number of injuries, how many aggressors, how many hostages, and where people are located in a room. Access control can be used to lock down sections of the school building where the shooting takes place.

- Fire in the building – Video may help identify trapped individuals, and an access control reader can be deployed at muster points and used to account for individuals by simply swiping their badges.

- Parking lot collapse – Law enforcement can use video to determine whether the cause of the collapse was foul play or an accident. Access control records can help determine whose cars were in the garage and potentially identify quickly any missing people who may have been walking from their cars to the exits at the time of the collapse.

For more information about how you can leverage video and access control in a school emergency, please read: Using Video and Access Control to Maximum Advantage in an Emergency.

Do you plan to incorporate video surveillance and/or access control into your emergency preparedness program?

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