NEW YORK – The New York City Police Department is replacing the existing metal detectors in nearly 80 of the city’s schools with new scanners from CEIA. Nine other K-12 campuses will also get the new equipment for random weapons searches.
The cost of the CEIA Opengate weapons detectors is about $3.9 million, reports Chalkbeat. The detectors, which students walk through, can be customized with the school’s name and colors. The design of the new equipment is intended to make the detectors more welcoming and less intrusive than traditional metal detectors.
Although CEIA marketing materials say that students who walk through the Opengate detectors don’t need to remove their backpacks because the machines can tell the difference between a weapon and other metal items that aren’t threats, the campuses with the new equipment will still require students to take off their backpacks before walking through the scanners. The backpacks will then be scanned through separate x-ray machines.
NYPD and school officials didn’t say if the old metal detectors will be reused or if they will be repurposed.
CEIA Offers Advice on How to Deploy Metal Detectors at Schools
Campus Safety previously interviewed Tom McDermott, CEIA’s school safety and security national sales manager about Opengate and how schools can more effectively screen for weapons.
He also discussed practices K-12 campuses can adopt to improve their overall weapons detection processes, such as not using metal detectors to screen for vape pens and strategically adjusting system settings to focus on weapons that could be used in mass casualty attacks.
Additionally, McDermott discussed why and when weapons detection systems should be deployed randomly.
