SafePro Technologies is ready for market

Whitewater-based SafePro Technologies reports its Soteria emergency response system has moved past the prototype stage and is now ready to sell, following an ongoing pilot installation at an area middle school.

Founders Paul Eckert and Robert Austin, both former law enforcement officers with backgrounds in active shooter and tactical safety training, launched SafePro in 2018 to address what they saw as a gap in how buildings respond to shootings and other dangerous events. Their answer, the Soteria system, combines gunshot detection with a proprietary ceiling-mounted laser projection system that guides building occupants toward safety in real time.

“We finally have the technical needs completed,” Eckert said. “And to see it working the way it’s supposed to and seeing the benefits beside it and seeing how long it took to get here, it feels good.”

“It’s integrated threat detection, notification and evacuation system. We took a lot of time to make sure it was perfect,” Austin said. “We’re really happy with where we’re at. We’re ready to sell this and are very, very confident that it will save lives.”

The version now being marketed is the product of several years of redesign. An early prototype was tested at UW-Whitewater, and a subsequent small-scale pilot at a local high school surfaced design flaws that sent the company back to research and development, according to Austin. During that process, SafePro also moved away from outsourcing its gunshot detection and built out its own, licensing the underlying technology through a Department of Energy public-private partnership program.

“While the idea belongs to the government, the product is SafePro,” Austin said.

The current system integrates detection, notification and evacuation. When a gunshot is detected, in-room indicators alert building occupants with audio and visual signals identifying the floor where the threat was detected and recommending a lockdown or evacuation. Near the threat, red Xs are projected on floors and walls to indicate areas to avoid; green arrows elsewhere in the building direct occupants toward the nearest safe exit. The system also triggers an automated phone call to a designated line, such as a police department, notifying first responders of a possible shooting in progress.

Distinguishing an actual gunshot from other loud, sudden noises was central to development, Austin said. Rather than relying on decibel level alone, the system’s sensors measure a sound’s amplitude over time. SafePro said it ran extensive testing inside the pilot school, including in music rooms and shop classes, to rule out false triggers from sources such as slamming lockers, power tools and musical instruments.

Beyond active shooter incidents, the founders said the system is built to respond to fires, chemical spills and other emergencies, and can integrate with a building’s existing security infrastructure through an API.

SafePro has also added a training component to the system, allowing school administrators to activate it for drills. Eckert said that feature responds to a persistent challenge in active shooter preparedness: communicating the material to children in a way that doesn’t frighten them.

“The kids don’t want to deal with it, and the system’s kid friendly. It’s arrows,” Eckert said. “This really simplifies it and makes it not as scary.”

Cost has been one of the biggest barriers to adoption for cash-strapped schools, according to the founders, who say they’ve worked to price the system within reach of school budgets. SafePro has partnered with a grant writer who specializes in COPS grants, a federal school safety funding source, working on a contingency basis. The company said the arrangement has already helped one Wisconsin school district secure funding for the system.

With the pilot complete, the company said its next step is building visibility among school superintendents and law enforcement leaders, along with other facilities, including hospitals and workplaces, that could use the system.

“We have something so unique and important here,” Eckert said. “We’re just so excited to get it out there.”