Article submitted by James Master, The Pilot News Managing Editor
At a recent meeting of the Marshall County Commissioners, Marshall County Community Corrections Director Ward Byers and Emergency Management Agency Director Clyde Avery requested the commissioner’s approval for a contract between the county and Guard911.
“This has come about from several years of Clyde’s attempts to put into place with law enforcement a one county, one protocol response to school shootings and armed intruders. And part of that is an immediate response from law enforcement,” Byers said.
Byers went on to say that they had been meeting with school superintendents and the police chiefs of the county. According to Byers, there seems to be some traction in creating that protocol, in particular using an app called School Guard.
“The School Guard App is one that school employees, administrators, teachers, would have downloaded on their telephone. A geofence, as it’s called, is built over each school building. The app only works within the geofence, it does not work outside of that so if there is an armed intruder or an active shooter inside any of the school buildings, the teacher, the janitor, the employee of the school can hit that app,” Byers said. Explaining further, once that employee uses the app, it will send out a GPS point on a Google map to all law enforcement in the area.
Law enforcement officers, on duty and off duty, within a 20-mile radius of that geofence will receive that notification using a separate app called Hero911. Byers also said that once the button is pressed by the employee, it simultaneously opens a 911 line to a 911 center.
“What that has proven to do all over the country is, it has put law enforcement, on duty officers, off duty officers, within that school within 30 seconds of that alert going out,” Byers said. “As we all know, national statistics will tell us, that an active shooter is over within a minute. It’s very quick.”
Byers said that this service does not negate the need for people to call 911, but what it does do is speeds up the response of law enforcement.
School Guard and Hero911 are part of Guard911, a company that spans across the country. According to their website, www.guard911.com, it is a federally approved app with over 60,000 federal, state, and local officers in its network.
There is a master contract that includes every school corporation in the county. It is for one year.
“It will set up the app. It will provide the monthly fees and all the setup, the training for the schools themselves. In the beginning of year two, each school corporation will already have their own individual contracts. And then they will carry on in year two and beyond with the monthly service agreements and keeping the app going as a school project or as a county-wide project,” said Byers.
Triton School Corporation Superintendent Jeremy Riffle was present at the Commissioner’s meeting. Riffle was there representing all the superintendents in the county. According to Byers, the superintendents are in favor of this project.
Byers requested that the commissioners consider approving the master contract as well as funding the project for the first year in the amount of $39,900.
Commissioner Kevin Overmyer asked if this would include just LaVille Elementary since the high school isn’t within Marshall County. Byers said that it would include both buildings. It is the same with John Glenn School Corporation and Triton School Corporation.
Byers stated that the police chiefs in each municipality indicated that they would encourage their officers to download the Hero911 app onto their phones.
When asked when it would become effective, Byers said that once the contract was signed and funding was available, the company would begin building the geofences and training the schools. “It could actually be in place before this school year is out.”
Commissioner Stan Klotz made a motion to approve the contract, subject to funding approval from the County Council and upon approval from the county attorney. The motion was unanimously approved.
