Active Shooter Response, Door Breaching System

Project number
25006
Organization
UA Police Department/ALERRT, supported by the Craig M Berge Dean's Community Fund
Offering
ENGR498-F2024-S2025
Law enforcement must be prepared to rapidly and directly respond to any active shooter event, which includes breaching any barriers that stand in the way. In schools and hospitals, many doors are reinforced, metal, high-security doors, which renders traditional breaching tools like the Halligan and battering ram far less effective. When every second counts, these traditional tools require multiple officers to spend valuable minutes laboring to gain entry while lives are potentially lost and simultaneously exposing officers to extended risk inside the "fatal funnel". The next generation of dynamic entry tool needs to be usable by only one operator to breach a metal security-door in under 2 minutes and lightweight enough to be usable by smaller-framed operators.

Scope:
(1) Work directly with end-users (Team Leaders of UAPD, ALERRT, FBI, Pima Regional SWAT Team, and TPD SWAT Team) to understand the strengths and limitations of the traditional breaching tools used by first responders for dynamic entry.
(2) Evaluate specialized tools in use by SWAT at critical incidents and research, develop, and innovate a new solution to dynamic entry tools and techniques.
(3) Develop features that reduce the number of operators required to breach a door to one, the amount of time spent in the "fatal funnel" to under 2 minutes, and a design with increased accessibility/usability for smaller-sized operators.
(4) Test system for function and survivability in various environments and use cases.
(5) Work closely with and present regular updates and testing results to Team Leaders with the FBI, UAPD, SWAT, and ALERRT.
(6) Apply for and obtain a patent on behalf of the University of Arizona.

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