government security news · brief list of best practices for navigat-ing the aftermath of tragic...
TRANSCRIPT
Government Security NewsMARCH 2016 DIGITAL EDITION
Also in this issue:Ensuring that stolen identities and other biometric data is useless to identity thieves – Page 4Sony to market cloud-based Eagle Eye Camera VMS throughout Japan – Page 6Electronic Pulse (EMP) is technology’s worst nightmare, says new GSN Columnist George Lane – Page 30Xenophobic immigration policy would wreck U.S. economy: American Immigration Council – Page 47
NYPD Commissioner Bratton, NY Mayor DeBlasio, Homeland Security Secretary Johnson attend active shooter response drill in NYC MTA station, as Guardian Gateway successfully detects all gunshots – More on Page 26
26 27
Chris Connors: Awareness of gunshot detections systems rising as Shooter Detection Systems continues to grow
that we’re looking to grow, especially in the court systems.
Q: How has the system been received by law enforcement and local po-lice?CC: In the beginning, they were a little hesitant because they were wor-ried about false alerts and about how some other companies approached this capability. Seven major city po-lice commissioners in the last few months have asked me to explain the capabilities to them. They know bet-ter than anyone else that an active shooter event requires immediate information, such as a shooter’s loca-tion. False alerts are unacceptable to our customers and law enforcement is starting to understand that our sys-tem does not false alert. They’ve been extremely receptive once they under-stand what we can provide.
Q: Does the system require SDS per-sonnel to monitor the sensor?CC: No. Once we do an installation, the system is fully integrated and au-tomated, and the customer controls where the information goes and how it’s distributed. That’s one of the fea-tures that I think has been well re-ceived. They can manage it on their own and without any IT or network security issues because everything is behind their firewall.
Q: In all of your installations, has the system ever reported on an ac-tive shooter? CC: Fortunately, there has not been an active shooter event, yet, in locations
By Steve Bittenbender
Shooter Detection Systems was cre-ated with one goal in mind – to pro-duce the world’s most accurate system to detect gunshots inside buildings.
The Massachusetts-based com-pany sells its Guardian Indoor Ac-tive Shooter Detection System, which uses both sound and infrared sen-sor data to confirm an active shoot-ing event has occurred. Across the country, school districts, shopping malls and other public facilities have signed on to use the innovative sys-tem, which also can send alerts to building occupants, facility manage-ment, law enforcement and/or other key stakeholders who need to know what’s happening.
“Sensor-based gunshot detection can play an important role as part of an active shooter preparedness pro-gram alongside more traditional se-curity technology like access control, video surveillance and mass notifica-tion systems,” said Matthew Frowert, the director of marketing, financial services and government for Tyco Federal Systems, an SDS partner. “In-tegrating these technologies into a single system can provide security op-erators a powerful, centralized com-mand center view to strengthen situ-
ational awareness.”Recently, Chris Connors, chief ex-
ecutive officer for SDS, spoke with GSN to discuss the latest happenings in the industry and with his company. Here are excerpts from that conversa-tion.
Q: GSN ran an interview last year about SDS’s capabilities, what has changed in the marketplace over the last 12 months?Chris Connors: I think the awareness that our capabilities exist and how we stand out against others attempting to compete in the marketplace has improved. This awareness isn’t every-where, but it’s growing quite a bit with media and the events that have been
happening with active shooters. We’ve been very successful in winning jobs with federal and state governments. We’ve also been successful in the commercial space, including major corporations and public venues such as convention centers, airports and court systems. So, I think that people are, now that they know it exists, are getting more comfortable with what it can do in an active shooter event.
Q: Has the system been used by a State or Federal Government cus-tomer?CC: We are not permitted to give spe-cifics on them yet, but we have sev-eral contracts in place with state and government customers. It’s a market
where the system is deployed. We’ve done around 30,000 rounds of testing at customer locations, ranges, schools and courthouses. It has picked up ev-ery shot. It’s somewhat of an unusual business to spend a lot of time and money on a product you hope never gets used, but government and pri-vate industry customers look at the active shooter as a “when”, not “if ” possibility.
Q: Has the system false alerted at any customer locations?CC: Our systems have had approxi-mately 12 million hours of operation-al time and never once has the system falsely alerted. I think that builds a lot of credibility with our customers when we can refer them to other cus-tomers who can testify to that.
Q: What’s the future hold in store for the technology overall and for the company?CC: It appears there is wider accep-tance of gunshot detection capabili-ties in today’s world. We have de-signed and shipped detection systems for over a decade. We have about a $60 million investment into all the research and development and about $500 million worth of systems that have been fielded. So, our job is to stay technically ahead and always look for ways to improve not just the sensor itself but the cost to own and install the system. We’re coming out with some new products in the next year that will address that.
Guardian Gateway uses color coded alerts to track shooter movement.
We’re All in This Together: Strategies for an engaged publicworkforce / Part OneContinued from page 22
have adequate training. In the upcoming part two of this
article, we will discuss how to build a foundation for more effective pre-paredness and practice drills, active shooter defensive strategies, law en-forcement response, psychological first aid, stress management, and a brief list of best practices for navigat-ing the aftermath of tragic incidents.
Retired Assistant Fire Chief John Lin-strom resides in San Bernardino Coun-ty, CA, and serves as Business Develop-ment Manager at the AtHoc Division of BlackBerry, for Public Safety and Avia-tion. He has thirty years’ experience in municipal, special district, state, mili-tary, and federal government agencies as an emergency manager, fire chief, and mass fatality team commander. John wrote the Part 139/107 Emergen-cy Plan for Southern California Logis-tics Airport, and served on the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Panel for Homeland Se-curity and Emergency Management in Los Angeles. He has also contributed to the Federal Interoperable Mass Fatality Concept of Operations Plan, and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Interagency Agreement (IAA) and Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
26 27
Chris Connors: Awareness of gunshot detections systems rising as Shooter Detection Systems continues to grow
that we’re looking to grow, especially in the court systems.
Q: How has the system been received by law enforcement and local po-lice?CC: In the beginning, they were a little hesitant because they were wor-ried about false alerts and about how some other companies approached this capability. Seven major city po-lice commissioners in the last few months have asked me to explain the capabilities to them. They know bet-ter than anyone else that an active shooter event requires immediate information, such as a shooter’s loca-tion. False alerts are unacceptable to our customers and law enforcement is starting to understand that our sys-tem does not false alert. They’ve been extremely receptive once they under-stand what we can provide.
Q: Does the system require SDS per-sonnel to monitor the sensor?CC: No. Once we do an installation, the system is fully integrated and au-tomated, and the customer controls where the information goes and how it’s distributed. That’s one of the fea-tures that I think has been well re-ceived. They can manage it on their own and without any IT or network security issues because everything is behind their firewall.
Q: In all of your installations, has the system ever reported on an ac-tive shooter? CC: Fortunately, there has not been an active shooter event, yet, in locations
By Steve Bittenbender
Shooter Detection Systems was cre-ated with one goal in mind – to pro-duce the world’s most accurate system to detect gunshots inside buildings.
The Massachusetts-based com-pany sells its Guardian Indoor Ac-tive Shooter Detection System, which uses both sound and infrared sen-sor data to confirm an active shoot-ing event has occurred. Across the country, school districts, shopping malls and other public facilities have signed on to use the innovative sys-tem, which also can send alerts to building occupants, facility manage-ment, law enforcement and/or other key stakeholders who need to know what’s happening.
“Sensor-based gunshot detection can play an important role as part of an active shooter preparedness pro-gram alongside more traditional se-curity technology like access control, video surveillance and mass notifica-tion systems,” said Matthew Frowert, the director of marketing, financial services and government for Tyco Federal Systems, an SDS partner. “In-tegrating these technologies into a single system can provide security op-erators a powerful, centralized com-mand center view to strengthen situ-
ational awareness.”Recently, Chris Connors, chief ex-
ecutive officer for SDS, spoke with GSN to discuss the latest happenings in the industry and with his company. Here are excerpts from that conversa-tion.
Q: GSN ran an interview last year about SDS’s capabilities, what has changed in the marketplace over the last 12 months?Chris Connors: I think the awareness that our capabilities exist and how we stand out against others attempting to compete in the marketplace has improved. This awareness isn’t every-where, but it’s growing quite a bit with media and the events that have been
happening with active shooters. We’ve been very successful in winning jobs with federal and state governments. We’ve also been successful in the commercial space, including major corporations and public venues such as convention centers, airports and court systems. So, I think that people are, now that they know it exists, are getting more comfortable with what it can do in an active shooter event.
Q: Has the system been used by a State or Federal Government cus-tomer?CC: We are not permitted to give spe-cifics on them yet, but we have sev-eral contracts in place with state and government customers. It’s a market
where the system is deployed. We’ve done around 30,000 rounds of testing at customer locations, ranges, schools and courthouses. It has picked up ev-ery shot. It’s somewhat of an unusual business to spend a lot of time and money on a product you hope never gets used, but government and pri-vate industry customers look at the active shooter as a “when”, not “if ” possibility.
Q: Has the system false alerted at any customer locations?CC: Our systems have had approxi-mately 12 million hours of operation-al time and never once has the system falsely alerted. I think that builds a lot of credibility with our customers when we can refer them to other cus-tomers who can testify to that.
Q: What’s the future hold in store for the technology overall and for the company?CC: It appears there is wider accep-tance of gunshot detection capabili-ties in today’s world. We have de-signed and shipped detection systems for over a decade. We have about a $60 million investment into all the research and development and about $500 million worth of systems that have been fielded. So, our job is to stay technically ahead and always look for ways to improve not just the sensor itself but the cost to own and install the system. We’re coming out with some new products in the next year that will address that.
Guardian Gateway uses color coded alerts to track shooter movement.
We’re All in This Together: Strategies for an engaged public workforce / Part OneContinued from page 22
have adequate training. In the upcoming part two of this
article, we will discuss how to build a foundation for more effective pre-paredness and practice drills, active shooter defensive strategies, law en-forcement response, psychological first aid, stress management, and a brief list of best practices for navigat-ing the aftermath of tragic incidents.
Retired Assistant Fire Chief John Lin-strom resides in San Bernardino Coun-ty, CA, and serves as Business Develop-ment Manager at the AtHoc Division of BlackBerry, for Public Safety and Avia-tion. He has thirty years’ experience in municipal, special district, state, mili-tary, and federal government agencies as an emergency manager, fire chief, and mass fatality team commander. John wrote the Part 139/107 Emergen-cy Plan for Southern California Logis-tics Airport, and served on the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Panel for Homeland Se-curity and Emergency Management in Los Angeles. He has also contributed to the Federal Interoperable Mass Fatality Concept of Operations Plan, and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Interagency Agreement (IAA) and Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
www.shooterdetectionsystems.com
ACTIVE SHOOTER DETECTION AND REPORTING SYSTEM: ENHANCE YOUR ACTIVE SHOOTER RESPONSE PROTOCOLS
The Guardian is the worlds most trusted and installed Active Shooter Detection and Reporting System on the market. Fortune 500 corporations, court systems, convention centers, universities, government buildings, banks and K-12 public, private, and vocational schools have all chosen to protect their staff, visitors and students with Shooter Detection Systems’ revolutionary sensors.
Visit us at ISC West Booth 2059
www.shooterdetectionsystems.com
The Guardian Indoor Active Shooter Detection System
Featured on the TODAY Show
1-844-SHOT911
Whitepaper: The Use of Technology to Improve Active Shooter Response
57
The News Leader in Physical, IT and Homeland Security
CEO/Editorial Director:Adrian Courtenay
(O) 212-344-0759, X3(C) 917-696-5782
Publisher:Michael Madsen
(O) 212-344-0759, X1(C) 732-233-8119
Senior Writer:Steve Bittenbender(C) 502-552-1450
Senior Writer:Karen Ferrick-Roman
Columnist:John Convy
Convy on Netcentric [email protected]
Columnist:Shawn Campbell
Columnist:George Lane
Art Director:Gerry O’HaraOHDesign3
Production Director:Tammy Waitt
Mailing Address:Government Security News
P.O. Box 7608Greenwich, CT 06836
Government Security News (ISSN 1548-940X and UPS 022-845) is published in six print editions (Jan, Mar, May, Jul, Sep, Nov) and six digital editions (Feb, Apr, Jun, Aug, Oct, Dec) per year by World Business Media, LLC, P.O. Box 7608, Greenwich, CT 06836. Telephone (212) 344-0759. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to GSN: Government Security News, Subscription Department, P.O. Box 316, Congers, NY 10920-0316. For Government decision makers and business executives involved with security products, systems and series. Qualified U.S. subscribers received GSN: Government Security News at no charge. Non-qualified subscribers in the U.S. are charged $75.00 per year. Canadian and foreign subscribers are charged $140 International Airmail. Copyright 2016 by GSN: Government Security News. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. GSN: Government Security News assumes resonsibility for validity of claims in items reported.