The first Baltimore County high school will start using the Omnilert detection system by the end of this week, with all others following suit by the end of the school year.
April Lewis, executive director of the county’s Office of School Safety, announced the rollout Monday in a county senate delegation meeting.
Omnilert will pair with over six thousand existing security cameras to identify unconcealed guns on the interior and exterior of county school buildings.
“Once the camera picks it up, then alerts would go to the administrators,” Lewis said, along with school resource officers and the Baltimore County Police Department.
“Seconds matter in the event that something of that nature happened and there was that kind of threat,” she said.
Three guns have been found in county schools so far this year, Lewis said.
The district considered adding metal detectors to school buildings, but found them too expensive and difficult to staff after a pilot run in three schools last spring.
