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New Alert System Aims To Help Protect Students From Gun Violence

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- School districts across the country are being forced to find new ways to protect students.

Though many districts have voted to put armed guards and officers in the building, others are relying on new technology.

On Wednesday, a Texas-based company called COP Sync, Inc. launched its new alert system nationwide.

A company spokesperson told KDKA's Kym Gable that representatives will be reaching out to school in the East, including here in Western Pennsylvania.

With COPsync 911, teachers in the classroom can instantly contact the five closest law enforcement officers with one stroke on a computer keyboard.

Instant messages can be exchanged between officers and teachers, and police can use the system to view maps of the building, while those teachers give them real-time updates.

KDKA talked to a local expert on "Active Shooter Violence."

John Bruner, founder of In-Crisis Consulting, said this about gun violence in schools.

"Eighty-five percent of the time they end when police arrive on the scene," said Bruner. "The actors either take their own life or they die by police force. So that four or five minutes, if you can reduce that… then that's going to reduce injury and it's definitely going to reduce death."

COPsync 911 costs schools about $3.33 a day.

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