Manatee first in nation to pilot school security video tech integration

The School District of Manatee County is the first school district in the nation to integrate two technology platforms that give security personnel and first responders access to live video feeds when a staff member activates a wearable panic button.

The two technologies are made by Centegix and Open Eye.

Centegix provides wearable panic buttons that activate crisis alerts. In the School District of Manatee County, these come in the form of badges. Every staff member, including substitute teachers, is required to wear the badge when on a school or district campus. Pressing it notifies first responders of the emergency and the badge’s location. In May, the Manatee County school board approved an annual contract with Centegix for $345,000. 

In 2020, the Florida legislature passed Alyssa's Law in the aftermath of the 2018 Parkland shootings that required Florida public schools to implement a mobile panic alert system.

The Manatee school district, officials say, has now gone a step further than emergency notification and integrated the Centegix technology with OpenEye, a cloud-based video platform that can associate nearby camera feeds with crisis alert activations. This helps first responders assess incidents more quickly, informing their decision-making during emergencies.

“The first question every responder asks is, ‘What are we walking into?’ With hundreds of cameras in a typical school, it's nearly impossible to quickly access the ones you need in real-time,” Scott Hansen, chief technology officer for the School District of Manatee County says in a statement. “Centegix now provides an immediate solution. Live video, maps and context will be automatically streamed directly to dispatchers and first responders, turning our cameras into a real-time response resource rather than solely a post-event tool.”

The School District of Manatee County was the first partner to pilot the technology integration in the country and was involved with shaping the product, according to Centegix CEO Brent Cobb.

“Every second between receiving an alert and understanding what’s happening matters,” Cobb says in the statement. “By bringing live video and location information together, this integration gives on-site teams and, when needed, emergency response personnel, greater context to assess a situation and coordinate an appropriate response.”

The estimated annual expenditure for OpenEye is $486,000, according to Hansen, who notes the district did not incur any cost for the integration between Centegix and OpenEye.

School District of Manatee County superintendent Laurie Breslin says the new integration supports the school district's top priority: safety and security.

“Our investment in technology is ultimately an investment in people, ensuring that students can focus on learning and employees can focus on supporting them, with the confidence that their well-being remains at the center of every decision we make,” Breslin says in an emailed response to questions from the Business Observer about the new technology. “These enhanced safety measures strengthen our ability to identify potential concerns, respond quickly when needed and provide an additional layer of protection. The safety and security of our students and staff will always be our highest priority.”