Perris Union High trustees hear demonstrations of two weapons-detection systems; staff flag cost, staffing and logistics concerns

PERRIS, Calif. — The Perris Union High School District Board of Trustees on Nov. 20 heard hour-long demonstrations from two vendors showing walkthrough weapons-detection systems and probed how each would affect school arrival procedures, staffing and budgets.

Alex, a representative of Evolve Technology, opened with a company video and described the company's Express product as an AI-enabled screening system that flags potential threats on a tablet image and directs staff where to perform a targeted secondary search. Evolve said the portal can collect alarm rates, head counts and tagged results from secondary searches for reporting.

CHA representative Tom McDerman demonstrated the Open Gate system and focused on metal-signature thresholds and sensitivity settings. "This is about how do I get people from an unsecure environment into a secure environment as quickly as possible," McDerman said, framing the technology as a throughput tool that reduces nuisance alarms so staff can concentrate on credible threats.

Why it matters: both vendors framed the systems as trade-offs. Increasing sensitivity to detect smaller or subcompact firearms raises the rate of non-threat alarms — and, with it, the staffing and time needed to resolve each alert during morning arrival. CHA said its experience shows low alarm rates in stadium settings (about 1–2%) and reported a school alarm rate of roughly 7% in demonstrations with training; the vendor said throughput math can reach about 300 students per 15 minutes through a single lane at certain settings.

Trustees and staff pushed vendors on specific school-site issues. District staff and trustees asked whether Chromebooks and binders would routinely trigger alarms; both vendors confirmed laptops are a common source of false positives and recommended piloting demo systems to test local device types and to adopt operational workarounds (placing laptops on a table to bypass the lane or using a bag scanner). Evolve offered a bag-scanning product as an add-on to reduce alarm rates on packed backpacks.

Vendors also discussed durability, power and service. Evolve said equipment life expectancy is about seven years and that software updates and warranty service are typically bundled in multi-year agreements; the company estimated a single-lane deployment at about $80,000 to $100,000 over a four-year term. CHA described battery and plug-in options and said units can be purchased outright; vendors said they can overnight parts and provide 24/7 technical support to minimize downtime.

Operational stress points cited by staff included: the number of entrances at each campus (district staff listed main, bus and special-education entrances at multiple high schools), available power at entrances, storage and charging for mobile units, and the supervisory burden of having hundreds or thousands of students on campus while personnel are tied to screening.

Trustees discussed using equipment for after-hours athletic events instead of daily arrivals as one staffing workaround; staff said some districts have had success deploying units at game-day gates as a deterrent and to intercept prohibited items before attendees reach the stadium.

What wasn't decided: trustees received vendor briefings and site analyses but did not approve a procurement at the meeting. Staff recommended site walks, pilot testing at representative campus entrances, and further cost and staffing estimates before bringing a purchase recommendation back to the board.

Speakers quoted or referenced in this article are listed in the board's public transcript from the Nov. 20 meeting.