In a recent move to support school safety, Gov. Phil Murphy was in Paramus on Tuesday to announce that $6.5 million from the U.S. Emergency Response Plan will be used to create digital blueprints of school buildings for use by police and other emergency responders .
The digital maps will give law enforcement officials accurate visualizations of school interiors with floor plans, exits, entrances, windows and other access points in the event of an active shooter or other security threats, such as fire, Murphy said at East Brook High School.
The governor was joined by Lori Doran, director of the state’s Homeland Security Office, Bergen County legislators, Patrick Callahan, New Jersey State Police Superintendent, and other government officials.
1,500 public schools are already mapped using a technology used by the US military called Collaborative Response Graphics, or CRG. 6.5 million US dollars will be used to decorate the remaining 1,500 public and non-public schools in the state, the governor’s office said. The New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness and State Police will create the maps.
The announcement follows a state law passed Aug. 1 that requires schools to create threat assessment teams to alert school administrators to students who may pose a risk to their safety and security.
The digital maps will “harden” school buildings, giving police clear information when responding to emergencies, while threat assessment teams will handle the human side of school security, Murphy said. Both initiatives will begin in the 2023-24 school year.
New Jersey is one of three states in the nation to pass Alice’s Law, which requires schools to implement advanced public alarm systems to notify law enforcement in emergency situations. The law was named after Alyssa Alhadef, a 14-year-old student from North Jersey who was killed in the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
“We may face additional challenges if school plans become outdated,” said Doran, a former CIA officer who was appointed in February to lead the state’s Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness as its first female director. “If you don’t have an accurate description and depiction of the interior of a building or the location of key and critical information for a site, it can significantly undermine the efforts and response of multiple jurisdictions and ultimately cost lives.”
A nearly hour-long delay in getting a classroom key and a slow, disjointed police response to a shooting at an elementary school in Uwald, Texas, led to a formal investigation and the firing of the school’s police chief. Nineteen children and two teachers were killed in a May school shooting in Uvalde.
The initiative, Doran said, was a response to school shootings across the country. This has led to the creation of a common operational picture, improved planned strategies and simplified coordinated response to emergency situations. Mapping technologies give first responders a visual representation of a building, school or location.
New Jersey used the technology for scheduled public meetings during the state’s response to COVID-19 and during the police response to the domestic terrorist attack in Jersey City, Doran said. A shooting at a kosher supermarket in Jersey City in December 2019 left a police officer and three bystanders dead, and two of the shooters were killed in the ensuing shootout.
“The real work starts now,” she said. The state’s Domestic Terrorism Preparedness Task Force has already worked with 66 schools since 2019 to develop a digital map of their buildings. The state’s Office of Homeland Security and state police will inspect and identify all remaining schools that require digital mapping and are working with state law enforcement agencies to conduct outreach in schools across the state. Advocacy will consist of a program overview, technology briefing, and training programs and exercises in each district.
The $6.5 million builds on common sense gun safety legislation like the bill Congress passed in June after “decades of inaction,” said Rep. Josh Gottheimer, who represents New Jersey’s 5th Congressional District, which includes part of Bergen County . It made sense to use funding from ARP, the Biden administration’s COVID relief package, to protect children and teachers from active shooters and other school violence, Gottheimer said.
