Pepper Spray Drones in Schools: Can Technology Stop Tragedy?

Texas company proposes use of drones armed with non lethal weapons to thwart school shootings

By DRONELIFE Features Editor Jim Magill

An Austin-based company is hoping to be able to deploy drones equipped with non-lethal weapons, such as pepper spray and flash-bang grenades, in Texas schools as a way to combat the wave of school shootings sweeping the state and nation.

Justin Marston, the CEO of Campus Guardian Angel, said the company was launched in December 2023, in the wake of a deadly school shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. That tragedy, which occurred in May 2022, claimed the lives of 19 students and two teachers.

“We have seen how effective drones could be against people armed with guns,” Marston said in an interview. “I’d been thinking about this for several years as a way to try and help stop things like Uvalde in the future.”

Although the company has not secured any contracts for its services yet, it has been involved in a pilot project with school officials and the police department in Boerne, Texas, Marston said.

Under the company’s proposal, a drone equipped with “less-lethal effects,” would be prepositioned in a school and only called into service when a threat such as a potential school shooter is identified. The drone, remotely piloted by operators at Campus Guardian Angel’s headquarters, would be flown toward the suspected shooter’s location to deliver its payload to disable him or her.

“We get notified in some form or other. It could be from existing tech, it could be in our app, that a teacher notifies us that there is an event,” Marston said. He added that the company will also be able to access the school’s camera system in order to help determine if the threat is real, before deploying the drone.

“We try and find the shooter and then we apply effects until the shooter surrenders or they shut themselves in somewhere that we can’t reach, in which case we guard that area,” he said.

Marston said the company can act as the first line of defense before law enforcement officers arrive on the scene, as well as teaming with local law enforcement agencies at the site, to use its drones to help protect human first-responders.

“They can open a door, we can enter it (with a drone), we can fly ahead of them,” in a similar way to how a police dog might be deployed. “We can also act by ourselves when law enforcement is still getting there.”

Proposed plans call for the company’s UAVs to be equipped with flash-band grenades, which deliver a loud but non-lethal explosion, as well as a pepper-launcher mechanism to spray a cloud of irritant around the suspect. Equipping drones with such non-lethal weapons is permissible under federal law, Marston said.

Although the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 prohibits arming a drone with a dangerous weapon, it defines “dangerous weapon” as “a device, instrument, material, or substance, animate or inanimate, that is used for, or is readily capable of, causing death or serious bodily injury.”

Likewise, operating a drone inside of a school would not fall under the FAA’s jurisdiction, as indoor areas are not part of the national airspace regulated by the FAA.

Nevertheless, Marston said the company is engaged in discussions with the FAA to ensure that its operations are in compliance with all applicable federal laws and regulations. “We are in the process of having conversations with them and there is a path and a predetermined process for how you get approval for these things,” he said.

Similarly, he said his company is working to make sure it complies with all drone-related regulations in the state of Texas.

There is currently a bill pending in the state legislature pertaining to the use of drone-based security systems, such as Campus Guardian Angel’s, in schools in the state. House Bill 462, introduced by State Representative Ryan Guillen, a Republican representing the Rio Grande Valley area, would allow schools to use such UAV-based systems, in lieu of hiring armed human security guards as currently required by state law.

However, Marston said the passage of HB 462 is not required in order for his company to go forward with its plans to deploy drones in Texas schools.

“It’s not really a permission bill. It’s more of a funding-related bill,” he said.

Marston acknowledged that there are still many legal questions to be answered concerning the liability of flying drones armed with “less lethal” weapons inside schools.

“We’re working through the legal contracts around that. Some of this stuff may evolve over time as we continue to talk it through with our legal teams and with the legislature,” he said. One issue involves under what conditions the “effects” are deployed and who will take responsibility for that deployment.

“It’s a mixture of private security guard licensing constraints. Some of the people within our team have been sworn police officers. So, we’re looking at different ways to manage that,” he said.

Marston said having a drone respond to a potential school shooting situation would save critical minutes, and possibly result in saving lives.

“In these school shootings, most of the death happens in the first 120 seconds,” he said.

“I realize that this is radically different to other things that are out there,” Marston said. “But we think that there’re many places that drones can help keep people safe, and this is a different example, but still a valid one.”

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Read more:

• Texas Lawmaker Proposes Drones for School Security: A “Less-Lethal” Solution
• Congressional Hearings Propel Drone Integration for Public Safety: Key Insights and Future Directions
• Palm Springs Police Department Aims to Revolutionize Drone Response with DFR 2.0