By Kyle Dante

(The following story comes from the March 3, 2022, Legislative Matters Committee Meeting at 6:00 p.m.  The meeting was remotely conducted on Zoom and publicly accessible through the Somerville City website.)

Safety is a concern in schools. With several mass shootings across the United States, there is a call to action. Not only in protecting children and staff but response time by nearby police departments.

On April 12, 2022, Lt. Sean Sheehan proposed the Guardian Indoor Active Shooter Detection System (GIASDS). The system utilizes ten sensors throughout different parts of Somerville High School. It is listening for a shot, akin to an acoustic bang, and looking for infrared flashes of gunfire. With the implementation, it will eliminate false reports.

The Somerville Police Department must account for monitoring GIASDS. Training will occur in a service course. The GIASDS company will visit on how to detect and report the shot. Any gunshots found to result in a text message and email report. In doing so, SPD can find out where the shooting occurred and the victims’ current location.

For privacy purposes, GIASDS is supposedly safe. It will not provide personal information to the police. The sole purpose is to uncover a gunshot and call to action if it occurs.

So far, SHS has done some wiring. The current action is to detail and understands the technology. It is due to the complexity of GIASDS as a technology. Sheehan mentions the old SHS system being similar to GIASDS. The difference is that GIASDS does not video record the shots. It is solely a notification for the police department and those involved with the system.

The concerns from the City Council are about validating GIASDS. It lacks a microphone in the recordings. It is akin to another program, ShotSpotter. Therefore, the alert will depend on the acoustic bang sound and infrared flashes.

Keep up with the information regarding GIASDS through the City Council website, especially as SHS implements it. It is the second discussion of GIASDS; the first was during the April 14, 2022 City Council Meeting.

To download the GIASDS impact report, go to: http://somervillecityma.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=4&ID=26239&MeetingID=3539