SMYRNA—The Delaware Emergency Management Agency and its Comprehensive School Safety Program will invest nearly $1 million for the enhancement of school security throughout the state, the Agency announced on Monday.

The Agency will provide accurate and uniform maps for Delaware’s 19 public school districts and charter schools to allow for law enforcement and first responders to react quickly during an emergency in unfamiliar environments. The funding was enacted by Delaware’s General Assembly for “school mapping, reporting application, and threat assessment tools” as part of the legislature’s $10 million allocation to the School Safety and Security Fund

“These digital blueprints and maps represent a significant, tangible investment in school safety and security throughout Delaware. The goal is to ensure all emergency personnel have the best tools to communicate and collaborate in a crisis – when seconds count and lives are on the line,” said Department of Safety and Homeland Security Sec. Nathaniel McQueen, Jr.

The state is partnering with Critical Response Group, a New Jersey-based firm that specializes in collecting and digitizing school building blueprints and making them available to first responders. The Group’s proprietary Collaborative Response Graphics incorporate the same tactical and operational framework used by highly trained military units.

The maps contain detailed information on floor plans, including room labels, hallway names, external door and stairwell numbers, and key utility locations.  Additionally, the maps provide high-resolution imagery of the entire campus and accurate labeling for parking areas, athletic fields, roads, and neighboring properties to prepare first responders for coordinating emergency response inside and outside the building.

Copies of each high-resolution composite map will be available to local, county, and state emergency operations and dispatch centers, law enforcement personnel, and on-scene first responders. They will also be utilized to facilitate interagency training exercises, school drills, and coordinate any post-emergency reunification process. Once complete, cooperating agencies plan to conduct periodic walk-throughs and campus visits to ensure that each of the maps is current and up to date.