Safe Zone completes $1 million financing round, debuts at CES 2019

MELBOURNE, Fla.—Upon completion of a $1 million round of funding from Seedfunders of Tampa, Florida, Safe Zone Gunfire Detector (GFD) debuted at CES 2019. It was met with positive responses from attendees as Mike Anderson, founder, president & CEO of Safe Zone said in a release, “CES attendees clearly understood that our solution is the active shooter security breakthrough a very troubled world needs.”

Safe Zone also recently added new members to the team: Mike Lally, CEO; Irv Cohen, chairman of the board of directors; and Andy Charles, director, as well as appointed Stampede, a leader in value-added ProAV solutions, to help distribute the Safe Zone product line throughout North America.

“Stampede's unmatched reseller network across all vertical markets, coupled with its demonstrated ability to bring meaningful new solutions to market is going to help Safe Zone reach more potential customers at rapid scale,” Anderson said.

All this success was three years in the making. Anderson told Security Systems News that it actually started with the development of home automation products. “We discovered we could detect gun fire with some of the [home automation] technology and realized that was a real need in the market,” Anderson explained.

After thorough research about active shooters and the situations themselves, he concluded, “these events are becoming more prevalent and when a shooter starts shooting, they tend to keep shooting until somebody stops them.” Meanwhile, people's first reactions are to hide and get safe when hearing gun shots, not to call 911, which usually takes several minutes before that call is made. A considerable amount of detriment can happen during those precious minutes.

“It takes authorities a while to get there [to an active shooting],” said Anderson, “And, when they do, they are tasked with finding people [usually victims] to talk to and figure out exactly what's going on before they can respond and try to confront the shooter.”

To safely diffuse an active shooter situation, authorities must know exactly what and who they're confronting, in addition to the type of weapon being used so they can choose the correct type of gear to wear. Of course, this also takes time which is detrimental to the entire situation at hand.

“If you look at shootings over the past couple of years, the average time to actually confront a shooter is around 12 minutes,” said Anderson. “If you're one of the early gun-shot victims, then every minute you wait for treatment brings you closer to death.”

When a firearm is deployed, Safe Zone GFD provides up-to-date, relevant information directly to those who need it most. Anderson said, “911 receives the location of the shooter, the type of weapon being used along with the ammunition being fired and the number of guns. Simultaneously, system administrators will get an alert on their smartphone similar to an Amber Alert, and a previously created contact list will get a text or email notification.”

At a price point of $149 per unit, Safe Zone's GFD combines infrared and acoustic detection with cloud-based data analysis. Data is used from multiple detectors at the same time to determine the location of shots fired, the number of shots, and the type and caliber of gun being used within 10 seconds of a trigger pull. Triangular-shaped, the device mounts in a ceiling corner, providing coverage of up to 9,000 ft3. It can even be connected to third-party alarm, surveillance, door lock and mass notification systems to provide a complete emergency response solution in addition to Safe Zone security products - door and window sensors, silent alert units and wall-mounted emergency duress buttons.

During an active shooting situation, time and accurate information is of the essence to quickly diffuse it. “If we could end an active shooter threat 10 to 15 minutes earlier than normal, we can save a lot of lives,” Anderson said. “Our goal is to make gunfire detection much more affordable than it is now so that it is more readily available to more people.”