NewsNorthern Arizona NewsPrescott News

Actions

Arizona college studying technology that could make schools safer from active shooters

Posted at 5:36 AM, Jan 05, 2018
and last updated 2018-01-05 07:52:10-05

A college in Arizona will help make schools safer when it comes to active shooters.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, located in Prescott, received a $769,890 grant from the National Institute of Justice to test various technologies to keep an intruder from entering a school.

Professor Tom Foley, with the University's College of Security and Intelligence, is leading the research.

Foley says they will test barriers like doors, windows, glass and locks against the guns that have been used in recent mass shootings.

"We want to slow the bad guy long enough for the good guys to get there," said Foley.

"The Sandy Hook shooting took six minutes from the first to last shot," said Foley. "We are figuring out how to keep a shooter away from students long enough for police to arrive and stop the shooter." In essence, we are figuring out how to enhance security designs to give the kids at the next Sandy Hook six minutes before the bad guy gets to them."

This is the first time this has been studied in an academic setting, according to Foley.