MUTUALINK HOSTS FLORIDA SCHOOL SECURITY SUMMIT, UNVEILING TECHNOLOGY ADVANCEMENTS IN EMERGENCY RESPONSE COMMUNICATIONS
Key Educators, Law Enforcement and Legislators Engage in a Powerful Interoperability Discussion
WALLINGFORD, Conn., June 6, 2018 — Mutualink, a leading worldwide provider of secure interoperable communications solutions, joined with the Campus Safety and Security Department of Seminole State College to host the Florida School Security Summit on May 22, 2018. School security experts, law enforcement, administrators, teachers and legislators came together to discuss school safety challenges. Among the issues discussed, a key point of agreement focused on the importance of direct emergency communications between schools and first responders.
In Florida, like other states, school campuses and interiors can be complex. Even in smaller schools, when a major crisis occurs events are chaotic and fast-moving. Being able to communicate and relay critical information to first responders as a crisis unfolds is essential to stopping the threats as quickly as possible. Saving time literally saves lives. Florida State University Police Chief David Perry gave a riveting recounting of the FSU campus shooting. Direct communication to the university’s dispatch center, he said, saved over two minutes of response time, and likely saved the loss of multiple lives.
Captain Rick Francis of Seminole County Sheriff’s Office spoke on the importance of direct emergency communications between his office and the county’s 63 schools. Capt. Francis performed a live Mutualink communications and video sharing demonstration. The demo began with the push of a smartphone panic button, which instantly opened communications between the Sheriff’s Office and school security. Simultaneously, video views from the school displayed on the dispatch desktop, providing critical information for situation assessment and response.
Mutualink’s solution provides seamless radio interoperability along with mobile and landline voice communications systems, as well as real-time secure video sharing, geospatial information and data sharing capabilities. Mutualink’s nationwide instant interoperable networking and collaboration platform is used by state and local public safety agencies, critical infrastructure, schools and private enterprise security to easily connect with one another for secure critical communications. It has been proven to reduce the time to resolution in active shooter events by as much as 50 percent in exercises conducted by law enforcement teams.
“Time and again, after action reports from school shooting incidents and other disasters pinpoint a failure of communications and an inability for agencies to coordinate, resulting in a slower response,” said Joe Mazzarella, senior vice president and chief legal counsel for Mutualink. “Parkland, Sandy Hook and countless other tragedies report the same problem afterwards. Schools need real-time direct emergency interoperable communications and information sharing with first responders. It’s a fundamental necessity.”
