Fort Smith Public School officials reviewing safety options, including firearms detection

Safety options under review by the Fort Smith Public Schools administration include artificial intelligence, metal detector systems, weapon detection systems, and weapon detecting canines.

Those options and a school safety assessment were presented to the FSPS Board of Education during its meeting Monday (Nov. 13). The school board requested the district look at its safety protocols and what could be done to improve them at its August board meeting. The request followed two weapons-related incidents occurred in the schools during the first two weeks of school.

On Aug. 16, Northside High School administrators and Fort Smith Public Schools Police Department officers responded to a report of a student vaping, a news release from the district said. The school officers searched the student and discovered a firearm in the student’s backpack. School police immediately confiscated the firearm and arrested the student. The student was charged with a felony and the case was referred to the Fort Smith City Prosecutor’s Office, the news release said.

On Aug. 22, FSPS reported a “safety incident” at Ramsey Middle School, where a student brought a knife to school and threatened a staff member outside of a classroom. Ramsey school administration and an onsite FSPS officer responded and disarmed the student.

Administration has spent the last few months assessing the district’s safety protocols and reported that all schools in the district have access controlled vestibules and/or access controlled camera/card system; all exterior doors locked; all interior doors locked; all staff wears appropriate identification; and visitor check-in procedures are in place at all schools, said Marty Mahan, deputy superintendent.

The district also has a district crisis plan, school site crisis plans and district response and reunification plans. There are approximately 1,500 surveillance cameras in the district, Mahan said. He said research is being conducted on how weapons detection systems might enhance the FSPS comprehensive school safety assessments.

The FSPS Police Department has a presence on each secondary campus. The department has 14 full-time officers including two officers at each of the two high schools, one officer at each of the four middle schools and four officers who cover the elementary schools. There are also three part-time officers, a social worker, a volunteer police officer, the police chief and lieutenant and a dispatcher in the department.

Mahan said he and his staff have researched several options that could enhance the district’s security. They visited Hot Springs Public Schools to look at the Evolv artificial intelligence system in action and the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and Richardson ISD in Richardson, Texas, which both have the Open Gate metal detector system. The Evolv system would cost the district approximately $120,000 over three years. The Xtract One AI system would cost about $72,000 over three years. On the metal detector systems, the CEIA Open Gate system would have an initial cost of between $20,000-30,000. The Garret system would have an initial cost of approximately $7,000.

Though Mahan and his staff evaluated Omni Alert and Zero Eyes weapon detection camera systems, he did not have an estimate of the cost. The district might be able to use its security cameras for the systems he said.

A total of 12 security staff members would be required to operate and monitor the metal detectors or weapon detection systems at Northside and Southside high schools. A total of eight security staff members would be required to operate and monitor the metal detectors at the four middle schools. A total of four security staff would be required to operate and monitor the metal detectors at Peak and Belle Point, Mahan said.

The security staff would be responsible for operating and monitoring the metal detectors or weapon detection system, conducting thorough security checks, ensuring that no unauthorized weapons or dangerous items are brought into the school, interacting with students, staff, and visitors in a professional and respectful manner, notifying school administrators or law enforcement if a potential threat is detected, and maintaining records and reports regarding daily activities and incidents, the report said.

To add a firearms detection canine to the police department would cost about $15,000 to $20,000, Mahan said, noting that many of the officers on the force are already trained for canine handling. To hire a firearms detection canine and handler would be about $197,600 annually.

“These would be solely firearms and drug detecting canines. There would be no bite training,” Mayhan said.

He said more research needs to be done to determine what would need to be done to maintain flow into the schools while keeping safety as the top priority.

“The timeline is that in approximately January we can present you with a proposal of staggered implementation of some of these systems,” Mahan said, noting that the plan will probably involve a hybrid of some of the systems.

He said it would probably take five years to roll out the district’s system. Charles Warren, FSPS chief financial officer, said there is no funding “readily available” for a security system.

“First we would need to look at it all. How much of this is a one-time purchase, how much is annual. Once we have allocated what it looks like, then we would find a funding source,” Warren said. “This (funding) is going to be one of the more important conversations we have on the overall viability we have. It cannot be answered at this stage.”