Alyssa’s Law is legislation addressing the issue of law enforcement response time when a life-threatening emergency occurs. Most people think 911 is the fastest and most efficient way to notify and communicate with local police officers when help is needed, but the problem is that 911 is over 50 years old and it takes an average of 5-8 minutes to reach proper response team.
Alyssa’s law began when Lori Alhadeff pushed for a better way for teachers and school staff to notify and communicate with law enforcement, after her daughter, Alyssa, tragically lost her life in the shooting at Marjory Stoneham Douglass High School, in Parkland FL
The Miami Herald transcribed radio dispatches from the Parkland shooting where Officer Scot Peterson (SRO) said at 2:23 during the shooting, “Be advised we have possible, could be firecrackers. I think we have shots fired; possible shots fired —1200 building.” And second later, Peterson radioed: “We’re talking about the 1200 building it’s going to be the building off Holmberg Road Get the school locked down, gentlemen!” At 2:25, he radioed that “We also heard it’s by, inside the 1200.” [1] Unfortunately, officer Peterson was the only person on site with the capability of communicating directly with law enforcement personnel. Since he didn’t have clear information about the situation, other officers didn’t know what to expect, where to go, and how to proceed once they arrived. With a lack of situational details, and critical information necessary to make informed decisions, they formed a perimeter outside of the school and waited. As a result, 17 people lost their lives.
“Alyssa’s Law calls for the installation of silent panic alarms that are directly linked to law enforcement, so in the case of any emergency, they will get on scene as quickly as possible, taken down a threat and triage any victims”[2]
IN FORCE911 was launched with one simple premise: to save lives.
It is an easy-to-use mobile panic button with two life-saving components. First, it reduces police response time to a critical situation to as little as 4 seconds. Secondly, IN FORCE911 bridges the communications gap by providing a real-time, two-way chat between responding law enforcement and those experiencing the threat. Having a solution in the palm of your hand that notifies others of an emergency and helps you communicate details of the situation is invaluable. Lori Alhadeff advocates for Alyssa’s law, so that no other parent, teacher or student has to experience what her daughter or the 16 others experienced. Three years later, she has successfully enacted Alyssa’s law in Florida and New Jersey and has filed for it to be passed in New York, Nebraska and Arizona. There are several parameters to this law requiring compliance for private, public and charter schools (see below).
| Alyssa’s Law Requirements | IN FORCE911 Features |
| Integrates a mobile panic alerting system | IN FORCE911 is a mobile panic button and communication platform designed to save lives. |
| Ensures real-time coordination between multiple first responding agencies | IN FORCE911 enables streamline communication and coordination via mutual aid agreements and provides the highest level of interoperability between agencies at the municipal, county, state and federal level. IN FORCE911 is FIPS 140-2 and CJIS-5 compliant for the highest standard of encryption and security as well as the ability to run natively on law enforcement devices. This means that officers will receive and send information from any device- (cell phones, in-vehicle computers and dispatch simultaneously) reducing their response time to the school. |
| Easily customized per district or charter school | IN FORCE911 is easily customized to each school building within a district to ensure flexibility and ease of use. Credentialed users include substitute teachers, SRO’s, administrators, faculty and any additional building or district staff. |
| Provides two-way communication | IN FORCE911 provides in real-time, a two-way communication window, time/date stamp, specific building locations, user identifications and color-coded messaging. Talk-to-text, texting and typing options all available for sharing information. |
| Provides administrators access to provide campus or facility information through the system | IN FORCE911 has a backend portal for admin to upload EOP and SRP documents and training materials and it will be visible to users in the IN FORCE911 app. |
By deploying IN FORCE911 district wide we will increase school safety and provide an easy to use, reliable, mobile panic button and communication platform for staff and faculty. The goal is to create a safer, more secure environment for teachers to teach, students to learn and employees to work.
The mission of IN FORCE911 is simple – to save lives!
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoneman_Douglas_High_School_shooting
[2] https://makeourschoolssafe.org/
