Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

How can we add gunshot detection to our facilities?

  • By Allan Overcast
  • 05/01/18

You will need to look at your facilities and identify what classrooms, hallways, entrances, and exits need to be covered. Decide how many sensors that you need. Each sensor will detect within a certain range; for example: 2,500 square feet. Indoor sensors will generally be placed in hallways and entrances at an absolute minimum because statistically shootings occur or start in the entrances or hallways. Place sensors in areas that have more people or where people congregate the most, because if a crime is going to be committed it generally will be focused in an area that has a larger populace. Examples would be in a lunch room or in a large open atrium area where a lot of people hang out.

Decide if you’ll be adapting your existing alarm panel or are you will need to put in an additional network system to support the sensors. Some sensors have integrated contact closures that can tie directly into your alarm panel, therefore minimizing the need for an additional new system. You also need to determine how you want the message to go out. Look for sensors that can provide IP message notification over SMS, email, and other notification means.

In considering a gunshot detection system for your facilities, the main focus is going to be the size of your buildings, the number of sensors that you want to put in those facilities in the high-traffic areas, and the message notification style, whether it’s alarm panel integration or and/or if it includes IP message notification.

This article originally appeared in the College Planning & Management May 2018 issue of Spaces4Learning.

About the Author

Allan Overcast is owner/CEO of Shot Tracer Technologies, Inc. (www.shottracer.com). He can be reached at [email protected] or 866/636-8867.

Featured

  • UT System Approves First Funds for New Campus

    The University of Texas System Board of Regents recently approved funds to build the first facility of a new campus in far west Fort Worth, Texas, according to university news. UTA West will serve as a branch of the University of Texas at Arlington and is scheduled to open in fall 2028.

  • Hawaii Elementary School Breaks Ground on New Classroom Building

    Kealakehe Elementary School in Kailua, Hawaii, recently began construction on a new, $16-million classroom building for its campus, according to a news release. The 13,000-square-foot building will stand two stories and connect the existing upper and lower campuses.

  • Image courtesy of Kahler Slater

    UW–Madison Announces Completion of Morgridge Hall

    The University of Wisconsin–Madison recently announced that construction is complete on Morgridge Hall, a new academic building, according to a news release. The facility opened September 3 at the start of the fall semester, consolidating the School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences into a single facility for the first time.

  • Preparing for the Next Era of Healthcare Education, Innovation

    Across the country, public universities and community colleges are accelerating investments in healthcare education facilities as part of a broader strategy to address workforce shortages, modernize outdated infrastructure, and expand clinical training capacity. These projects, which are often located at the center of campus health and science districts, are no longer limited to traditional classrooms.