Edward McGovern
“It has sadly been a very deadly month from coast to coast due to gun violence, ” says Edward McGovern, Founder & CEO at CERA. “Nineteen elementary school students and two teachers were killed by an alleged lone gunman days ago in Uvalde, Texas. A doctor was killed and five other churchgoers were injured in a Laguna Woods, CA shooting. Ten innocent lives were taken at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo, NY in what is believed to be a racially-motivated crime.
It has been nearly 10 years since Sandy Hook, slightly over 4 years since Marjory Stoneman Douglas, and 23 whole years since Columbine. How and why is this still happening?”
It is a more difficult task to stop the bad guys from having intent to kill and pulling the trigger. What we CAN control is effective response of critical incidents.
It is quite disheartening to learn that a Tops grocery store employee is claiming a 9-1-1 operator hung up on her when she called to report the shooter, according to the New York Times. She alleges that she was whispering so that the shooter would hopefully not hear her on the phone. This is just one example of the weaknesses in our current communications systems that we are solving.
Critical Event Response Applications, or CERA, is a public safety app that “creates a direct line of communication between law enforcement, emergency medical providers, and individuals on the ground.” CERA greatly assists in containing the scene, neutralizing the threat, and treating and evacuating the injured and in danger. Simply put, it eliminates the chaos and confusion during a critical event to be able to save more lives in a time when time is of the essence.
CERA pitches @ eMerge America
CERA enables people to report threatening situations and injuries directly to law enforcement officers who have the CERA app with a tap of a button, instantly giving law enforcement the exact location of the threat and getting the information directly into the hands of police and fire as efficiently as possible.
As communities and public safety officials search for solutions to this epidemic of violence, we need to start prioritizing how we are going to address it. We cannot solve our response difficulties using the same antiquated technology that are general multi-purpose tools. In other words, the tools we need to address active killer events are not the same tools used to report a theft, the dynamics are completely different. We need to commit resources to our children’s safety with school attacks much like we committed to their safety when it comes to a fire.
The last school fire in the US that killed 10 or more children was 1958 in Chicago. Why? Because we addressed the specific issue using technology, resources and laws. From fire-codes to inspections to fire drills, we effectively took on a unique problem, committed to make changes and succeeded. It is also possible to change many of the outcomes in targeted violence cases.
Our hearts are saddened to see all of these senseless mass murders. We are praying for all of those affected by these tragedies. Parents are now fearful of sending their kids to school each morning. Shoppers and grocery store workers are worried if a trip to the supermarket or a day at work will be a death sentence. We can do better, but it only works if we join forces to do so.
Please click on the image below to see Edward’s response to the Uvalde massacre on CBS Miami.
