Drone technology that assists responders to school shootings is set to be trialed in Florida.
The Campus Guardian Angel is a Texas-based system that while supporting the police and other responders. A trial will be rolled out in three Florida school districts after approval from Governor Ron DeSantis.
Newsweek contacted the governor’s office for more information on the policy via email for this story.
Drones Can Be Deployed Within Five Seconds
With more than 60 school shooting incidents reported in Florida alone since 2018, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database, educators and lawmakers have urgently sought innovative approaches to school safety. The introduction of attack drones, designed to respond to active shooter threats in seconds, aims to address the crucial window in which most fatalities occur and could represent a major shift in school security across the U.S.
The drones, stored in secure boxes on campus, can be deployed within five seconds of silent panic buttons being activated. The devices—operated remotely by a team in Texas—provide constant live video feeds to first responders and, in some cases, fire nonlethal projectiles to delay or incapacitate an assailant.
The team in Texas consists of a pilot, who mans the drone, tactical experts who coordinate movement through the school and make decisions on engagement, and liaisons who relay live information to local law enforcement during the response.
Campus Guardian Angel CEO Justin Marston told Newsweek that the drones were equipped with pepper rounds plus a glass breaker, allowing them to quickly navigate inside and outside classrooms.
“We feed live video to police, show exactly what’s happening, where the suspect is, and even smash through windows with a glass punch to create distractions. This tactic, like during the SAS’s famous hostage rescue [at the Iranian Embassy in London], can give officers a huge advantage,” Marston said.
“Currently, an officer’s job is to run toward gunfire, alone, with no support or intel—basically a standoff. With our drones, they’re not alone; they know what the suspect looks like, what they’re doing, and we take point around every corner.
“We usually find the shooter before they do and keep them occupied. Every officer who’s seen this live has said they want it.”
Pilot Program in Florida
The Campus Guardian Angel drone system was recently demonstrated at both the Leon County Schools District Security Center in Tallahassee and AcadeMir Preparatory High School in Miami-Dade County.
In the demonstrations, the technology was shown to provide immediate situational awareness, allowing police and school safety teams to assess threats before entering the building.
Marston likened the system to having sprinklers in place. “The sprinkler system is able to put water on the fire in seconds because it’s already there. You still want the fire trucks to come, you still want the guys with hose pipes to show up—but since sprinkler systems were installed, there hasn’t really been a mass fire in a school that killed a bunch of children,” he said.
“The last time was 1958. It doesn’t happen now because we’re able to get…to the problem fast enough before it gets out of hand. It’s the same analogy here: we’ve got the drones in charging boxes, ready to go, and we can fly them on an encrypted channel across the internet.
“It’s a bit like that movie The Matrix, where the agent can jump into the nearest person and immediately be good to go. We’re a little bit like that—but we’re the good guys,” he added.
The pilot is being funded by $557,000 in state money as part of Florida’s 2025–2026 budget.
Following the successful tests, Campus Guardian Angel is looking to install permanent fixtures this September and October. Live service for the drones in the pilot schools will then begin in January, with multiple teams at the Texas operations center, which provides 24/7 coverage, ready to launch.
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