School safety monitoring FAQ.

Steadfast Schools is a 24/7 monitored school safety program from Freedom Tech. We connect the cameras, sensors, doors, and alarms on your campus to AI detection and a staffed operations center. A trained analyst verifies every alert in seconds, then your district's response plan takes over: lockdown, staff, SRO, and 911 with verified details.

No. Steadfast gives the people already on your campus earlier, verified information so they can act faster. Analysts watch every feed at once, which no person on site can do, and hand your team a clear picture: what, where, and which way.

Steadfast is a Freedom Tech company, led by CEO Leo Castellanos, a retired U.S. Army Special Operations veteran and Harnett County Sheriff's Office criminal investigator, and President & CTO Matt Jones, who founded Freedom Tech in 2010 and is an active deputy and field training officer with the Harnett County Sheriff's Office. Meet them.

Steadfast is built for public school districts, charter schools, and private and faith-based schools. We're based in North Carolina and plan each program around the campus, the budget, and the district's policies.

Alerts reach an analyst within seconds; about five seconds from detection to review is typical. Actual timing depends on camera placement, configuration, and your district's approved response plan, which we set up together.

The same analysts and the same playbooks stay on watch 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. After-hours alerts like fence climbing, break-ins, smoke, water leaks, and overheating server rooms go to the people on your call list, and to police or fire when needed.

Often, yes. We work with what you already have where we can and fill the gaps where you need it. Steadfast is built on Verkada and Ubiquiti UniFi cameras, sensors, alarms, and access control, with specialist add-ons for firearm, gunshot, and THC detection. Your campus assessment shows what can stay and what would help.

Your playbook decides who gets called. Analysts can relay verified details to 911, including a description, location, vehicle, plate, and direction of travel. Where deployed and authorized, integrations can support CAD, dispatch, and real-time crime center workflows; specifics depend on the agency and platform.

Yes. Analysts can speak directly to someone on campus through speakers on your lots, fields, and entrances, and set off sirens and strobes. After hours, AI can play an automated warning the moment someone climbs a fence or lingers by a door. When each is used follows your district's approved response plan.

Only when an incident calls for it. Live sharing with responding officers starts when an incident triggers it under your district's playbook, covers that incident and the cameras involved, and ends when the incident does. Your district decides which agencies are connected, by written agreement, and every view is logged. There is no standing, always-on access. How responders use Steadfast.

Per your playbook, the SRO gets the alert with a photo, the location, and what the analyst confirmed on video, then live updates as the analyst tracks the situation. The SRO knows what they're walking into before they get there.

No. AI weapon detection identifies firearms that are visible to a camera, such as a rifle carried across a parking lot. It cannot see weapons under clothing or in bags. That's why Steadfast layers it with plate recognition, entry controls, panic buttons, and trained people.

Plate readers at entrances and pickup lanes log vehicles and alert only on plates your district flags, such as a vehicle tied to a protective or custody order. Plates that aren't on a list are simply logged and deleted on your retention schedule.

Every AI alert is reviewed by a trained analyst on live video before anyone is dispatched or a lockdown is triggered, so staff respond to real events, not shadows or umbrellas.

Never. Restrooms, locker rooms, and changing areas get sensors only. They measure air quality, smoke, vape, sound level, temperature, and tamper. Sound sensors measure loudness, not words, and audio recording is turned off in private spaces.

A ceiling sensor tracks particles and chemical signatures in the air and reports a vape index. When it spikes past the level your school sets, an analyst checks the hallway camera outside the door for who came and went, and the right administrator gets the room, the time, and the clip.

Anywhere a camera can't or shouldn't watch, or where nobody is around to notice a problem: locker rooms, changing areas, the nurse's office, and counseling offices; server and network rooms (temperature, humidity, leaks); kitchens, boiler, and utility rooms (smoke, carbon monoxide, leaks); and hallways and gyms (loud-noise spikes, optional gunshot sensors, after-hours motion).

Yes, THC-specific sensing is available as an add-on sensor where districts want it.

Tamper detection alerts when a sensor is covered, sprayed, or pulled off the ceiling, and the hallway camera shows who was there.

The visitor rings the video doorbell at your secured entrance and holds a photo ID up to the camera. Front office staff see and talk with them, confirm the face matches the ID and the reason for the visit, then buzz them in. The visit is logged with the photo, the ID image, and the time.

The door stays locked. The front office, SRO, and Steadfast analysts are alerted with the photo and the order on file, and the situation is handled outside a locked door. Analysts can follow the person on camera if they move around the building.

No. Visitor ID uses the video doorbell or intercom at your entrance, so visitors don't need an app and staff can answer from a desk screen or a phone. If your entrances already have video doorbells, we'll check during your assessment whether they can be used.

Your district does. Footage, plate reads, sensor data, and logs belong to the district and are kept only as long as your policy says. Every video view and search is logged for audit.

Only if your district chooses to. Face matching is optional and only compares against a watchlist your district approves, such as people under a trespass or court order, where state law and district policy allow it. An analyst verifies every match.

Steadfast is built to support FERPA and state privacy and records rules. We draft a privacy policy and access rules with your district during design so your counsel and board can review them before anything goes live.

Request a no-cost campus safety assessment. We walk your campus with you, review your cameras, doors, sensors, network, and current plans, and design a layered plan sized to your budget. Then we install, train your team, and go live in our operations center.

E-Rate doesn't cover cameras, sensors, access control, or monitoring. It can cover much of the network those systems run on: Category Two funding helps pay for internal connections like Wi-Fi, switches, and cabling. We can help you plan a project so the network side fits your E-Rate budget and timeline and the safety side is funded separately. Learn how Category Two works.

Yes. Steadfast is delivered by Freedom Tech, which is SAM.gov registered (UEI TEY1A2JVKDC3, CAGE 24C48).