Launched in December 2023, they said, Campus Guardian Angel's security plan involves the strategic placement of drones inside a school building — though they'll only fly when there's an active shooter alarm — then connecting them to a digital map of the school with integrated sensors and surveillance cameras, and having a remote drone response team on standby. Marston said they're piloting the technology in several private schools this summer and public schools this fall.
“It’s like having a SEAL team in the parking lot,” he said. “You hope you’re never going to need it, but if you do, you’re going to be really thankful it’s there.”
King said he planned and executed in-person hostage rescues as well as remote predator drone strikes during his 32 years as a SEAL. For Campus Guardian Angel, he said he is starting with four tactical response teams in four command-and-control rooms and will scale from there as necessary.
Photo credit: Campus Guardian Angel
“In Texas, we’re building four rooms and four teams so we can handle four things simultaneously,” King said. “I can’t find anywhere in the data that shows me Texas has ever gotten close to that, so we’re pretty confident we can protect every school in Texas with that configuration.”
Marston said the company recruits from a pool of former military and SWAT team veterans and that each remote response team has 11 members, four of whom are drone pilots. He added that some of the best drone-racing pilots in the U.S. have come to work for Campus Guardian Angel.
The goal, he said, is to respond within five seconds of an active shooter alarm, be on the shooter in 15 seconds and degrade or incapacitate the shooter in 60 seconds. Marston said they were able to prove that this is possible during their first school demonstration last spring, where three special forces shooters acted as assailants.
“We kind of proved to ourselves in May last year that this is going to work,” he said. “It was really clear that waves of these little low-cost drones could overwhelm even elite special forces guys.”
The company has demonstrated the service in several Texas school districts since then, Marston said, and is now branching out to schools and universities in other states as well. They have also been meeting with state and federal lawmakers to discuss school security bills that could help fund the technology in lieu of, or in addition to, armed campus officers.
“If you don’t have anybody, we will be the front line of defense that keeps that shooter busy until other people get there,” Marston said. “If you do have people on site, we’re going to be a massive force multiplier to them.”
The service costs $4 per month per student, and the drones themselves are $15,000 for a box of six, Marston said. According to the company’s website, the drones can fly 30 to 50 miles per hour indoors and 100 miles per hour outside, and they're equipped with pepper spray guns, front lances to break through windows, sirens, flash-bang devices and two-way communication.
King said making it known that Campus Guardian Angel is in place can also act as a deterrent to prevent potential attacks, as school shooters often have a specific vision for the attack and “want it to go the way they plan.”
“If you know that the system’s in there, then you know that it’s not going to go your way,” he said. “And so maybe you’ll decide to do something else with your life that day.”
