Now, a government technology experiment in New York City is testing whether expanded 911 access inside schools could at least reduce injuries and fatalities from those events.
The pilot, announced earlier this week, also reflects the trend in public safety of deploying increasingly sophisticated hardware and software inside buildings to aid with emergency response.
The Spring Creek campus in Brooklyn has become the “first school building in the United States to have direct 911 integration,” according to a statement from the New York City mayor’s office.
The tool, called the Emergency Alert System, or EAS, was created by the New York City Office of Technology and Innovation.
Plans call for deployment to a total of 25 school buildings across all five boroughs during the ongoing school year. Those buildings are home to 51 schools.
EAS relies on what the statement calls “multiple fixed buttons and wireless lanyards” via which users can make emergency calls.
Those requests for service “flow straight to real-time dispatch,” according to the statement, with the schools having “audible and visual indicators notifying students and faculty that 911 has been notified, and the school is on a hard lockdown.”
The hypothesis driving the experiment is that EAS will result in a 911 response in less than 10 seconds.
EAS “adds another layer of security in our schools and offers peace of mind to our school communities in a worst-case scenario,” said New York City Public Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos in the statement. “This pilot builds on the robust safety measures already implemented in our schools.”
The origins of the project date back to 2023 when officials called for a school-based panic button that could be used during school shootings and weapons threats.
Since then, New York state has taken heat for its alleged slowness in upgrading to NG911 services, which generally seek to equip call takers and dispatchers with wider and quicker access to digital and mobile information about emergencies.
This New York City project is hardly the only idea that has recently emerged to help deal with and possibly prevent school shootings.
An online reporting system reportedly prevented an Indiana school shooting earlier this year, for instance. Some school officials, meanwhile, are turning to digital security badges with alert capabilities. And government officials outside of New York have considered their own panic buttons.
