The School District of Manatee County is the first school district in the nation to pilot an integration that connects wearable staff panic buttons with live school security camera feeds, giving security personnel, dispatchers and first responders additional information during emergencies.
The system brings together technology from CENTEGIX and OpenEye. District employees, including substitute teachers, wear CENTEGIX badges that can be used to activate an emergency alert. When a badge is activated, the system identifies the location of the alert and can automatically provide live video from nearby OpenEye security cameras.
The integration is designed to give responders a clearer picture of an emergency before they arrive. Rather than searching through hundreds of school cameras to locate the appropriate feed, dispatchers and first responders can receive relevant video, maps and location information connected to the alert. The technology can be used for security threats as well as medical emergencies.
Manatee County was the first school district to serve as a pilot partner for the integration and helped shape the technology, according to CENTEGIX. The company has separately described Manatee as among the first districts to use the completed integration.
The Manatee County School Board approved an annual CENTEGIX contract estimated at $345,000 in May. The district’s estimated annual expenditure for OpenEye is $486,000, according to district Chief Technology Officer Scott Hansen. The district did not incur an additional cost to integrate the two existing systems.
Florida public schools are already required to have mobile panic alert systems under Alyssa’s Law, which was enacted in 2020 following the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Manatee County’s new system expands on that capability by connecting an emergency alert directly with nearby live camera feeds.
The technology also includes privacy controls. According to FOX 13, video is streamed to responders when help is requested and the feeds automatically shut off after the incident is resolved.
District officials say the integration is intended to reduce the time between receiving an emergency alert and understanding what is happening on campus, providing responders with more immediate information as they determine how to respond.