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Committee hears school drone safety pilot (SB 488); vendor describes "Guardian Angel" system, author later defers for tweaks
Summary
SB 488 would authorize a pilot school drone safety program (Campus Guardian Angel) that stores drones on campuses to respond to active‑shooter incidents; proponents displayed a video and described Florida pilots; the committee adopted technical amendments and moved the bill favorable as amended, then the author asked to defer development for one week for additional work.
Senate Bill 488 would establish a school drone safety response pilot that stores multiple drones on campus and connects them to a centralized operations team to respond to active‑shooter incidents. Chairman Edmonds said the measure creates a pilot program and staff offered a technical amendment (29‑08) that the committee adopted.
Michelle Geddy introduced the vendor and described the concept: in the vendor—s demonstration the drones are stored on campus and would be deployed immediately when a panic button is triggered, with remote expert pilots operating them to distract or incapacitate an armed attacker and to provide two‑way communications and situational awareness to responding officers. The company representatives showed a video of a Florida pilot program and described goals such as responding on site in 5 seconds and engaging a shooter quickly to buy time for first responders.
Committee members asked about duplication with existing homeland security efforts, law enforcement integration, ethics, and how the devices would physically disable threats; company representatives described a layered response (sirens, speaker announcements, chemical irritants, kinetic contact) and said live response would be coordinated with local sworn officers. Several senators urged careful procurement language to preserve competitive procurement and law enforcement input.
The committee adopted the technical amendment and initially moved SB 488 favorable as amended, but the author later requested a one‑week voluntary deferment to work with stakeholders on language and implementation details.
