BluePoint Alert’s School-Safety Solution Is 2014 ‘New Product of the Year’
A Kane County-based company, born in part from the 2012 tragedy in Sandy Hook, has produced a school-security system that has been named a winner in the 2014 New Product of the Year Award in the crisis management category.
BluePoint Alert Solutions, 425 Renner Drive, Elgin, received the award from Security Products magazine, an integrated product and technology magazine for the security market. The award honors “the outstanding product development achievements of security equipment manufacturers whose products are considered to be particularly noteworthy in their ability to improve security.”
More than 100 entries were received in the sixth successful year of this contest. Winners were honored in 32 product award categories.
BluePoint Alert Solutions has its origins in the aftermath of the tragic Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut, where 26 people — 20 students and six adults — were shot and killed by an armed intruder.
“During a regular client meeting with a local school district, John McNutt and Stephen Nelson discussed with the superintendent of the district the idea of a user-friendly rapid notification system for law enforcement and how valuable it could be to saving lives in extreme emergency situations,” the BluePoint website says.
The product itself works very much like a fire alarm, only this little blue box on the wall connects to law-enforcement agencies. It automatically communicates a threat situation throughout the building and lets the intruder know police are on their way.
To create the product, BluePoint assembled a leadership team of professionals from varied backgrounds , its website says. BluePoint provides a proprietary (patent pending) emergency rapid response system along with a wide variety of support services, including security assessments, emergency management plan consultation, video camera integration, controlled access integration and building security enhancements.
“Based on our background in construction, fire alarm, and security technology, as well as numerous discussions with various law enforcement officials, we recognized that there was a great need for an easy to initiate alert system to address intruder incidents,” its website says. “From the beginning our team’s goal was to enable faster police response and immediate facility wide notification of a dangerous situation. We developed our system to be both easy to use in an emergency and dependable so that it will be there when you need it.”
Ralph C. Jensen, editor in chief of Security Products magazine, said 2014 was “by far the most exciting New Products competition we’ve ever had.”
“There were several categories where there was a tie,” he said. “Our four commissioned judges found that these products were so close, and in many instances, the exact same score, it was difficult to award one winner. One of our category winners, Quantum Secure, posted a perfect score with their entry. This proves that technology still reigns as the order of the day in the security industry. I know there are more new products available in the security world, and I would sure like to see more technology.”
The BluePoint Alert System
What It Does
- Acts as a deterrent similar to a security system
- Automatically contacts police with minimal human action
- Automatically communicates a threat situation throughout the building and to Key Stake Holders
- Lets the intruder know Police are on their way
- Provides Police and Key Stake Holders initial location of threat information
Why It’s Needed
- Incidents do occur
- Panicked people don’t react rationally or think clearly through even simple operations
- The faster the first responders are on site, the faster the emergency situation ends
- The faster the facility initiates its emergency protocols, the faster the occupants are safe
