Eastport-South Manor schedules live-action safety drill with Suffolk County police; ZeroEyes weapons-detection system to be tested

The Eastport-South Manor Central School District announced a live-action safety drill with the Suffolk County Police Department scheduled for Saturday, March 15, during which officers will use simunition (paintball-style) rounds and district staff will test a camera-based weapons-detection product from vendor ZeroEyes.

Director of security Phil Avarsano told the board the drill will include three separate scenarios run in the district's academic wing and that Suffolk County officers will set up in the front faculty lot. Avarsano said officers and district security staff will begin staging at 6 a.m., and the first scenario is set to start at 7:45 a.m. He said 20 to 25 officers are expected to participate in each scenario and that district security staff will either shadow officers or act as role players during exercises.

The exercise will use only simunition rounds inside the school, Avarsano said, and the department's medical tactical (medcat) unit will be present to support training in tourniquet and casualty care procedures. The district will restrict access to the academic wing while scenarios run and will hold pre-briefings and after-action reviews in classrooms before and after each scenario.

Board members and staff described three objectives for the exercise: give school security personnel an opportunity to work directly with patrol officers in a familiar campus environment; allow responding officers to learn school layouts before an incident; and test camera-sharing access so police can view interior cameras from their vehicles during an emergency.

Avarsano also said the district is piloting ZeroEyes, a commercial weapons-detection platform that attaches to existing cameras and generates automated alerts when it detects an exposed weapon in view. He said the vendor will outfit one camera for the drill and that the system will be tested against simulated firearms. In response to a board question, Avarsano described a detection constraint the vendor communicated: a weapon must be at least partially exposed to the camera (he relayed the vendor's figure that roughly 21% of the weapon must be visible) for the software to raise an alert.

Board member questions focused on operational details and costs. Board member (Reyes) asked whether ZeroEyes is a software overlay for existing cameras or requires additional hardware; Avarsano said it runs over the district's cameras and that other districts have implemented it successfully. Chief financial or business official Mr. Laube told the board the product is not currently in the budget and would require adding a recurring subscription cost if the board chose to pursue it.

District staff said the March 15 drill will also be used to troubleshoot ongoing “share program” issues that have intermittently prevented Suffolk County from remotely viewing district cameras. Avarsano said there were IT handshake problems during a recent test, and the drill will provide an opportunity to verify remote access under exercise conditions.

The board was invited to observe the exercise; district staff said observers must be registered in advance for check-in and safety reasons. No formal vote was recorded on the drill or on pursuing ZeroEyes during the March 5 meeting; board members asked staff to return cost information to a future meeting if the district wishes to add the system to the budget.

Why it matters: The drill brings first responders into the school environment to practice coordinated responses and gives the district a chance to test both human and technical layers of its safety plan. Testing a commercial weapons-detection product and camera-sharing arrangements could affect future security spending and operational protocols.

What’s next: The district will run the March 15 drill as described, report back to the board with any after-action findings, and present cost information if it decides to pursue ZeroEyes or similar systems for budget consideration.