As a world-class destination that spans over 5.6 million square feet, Mall of America sought a way to make its lockdown procedure more efficient. Nick Evert, security dispatch & special projects manager for Mall of America says, “None of our systems were tied together. In the event of an emergency, we need to communicate through multiple channels including phone calls, PA announcements, emails and texts. However, it was time-consuming and involved multiple people triggering all these systems through individual transcribing.”
Mall of America worked with Status Solutions to integrate its disparate systems into one cohesive and efficient solution. Evert says, “This system did exactly what we needed it to do. During our most recent emergency, with the press of a button, we were able to quickly and effectively communicate that we were in lockdown to all guests, tenants, and team members. We did have a few key learnings from this situation, but we were able to sit down with Status Solutions to make a few tweaks and enhancements for our unique venue.” Mall of America knew they wanted to make their mass notification platform even broader. They worked with the Status Solutions team to incorporate numerous digital signs throughout the mall and parking garages so that they could become mass notification tools simultaneously with one triggering event.
With Status Solutions’ flagship technology, SARA, Mall of America now has a color-coded dashboard that allows their security to manage any event. Drills are differentiated from real emergencies by color-coded buttons. Specific types of emergencies and triggering reactions are also broken down by colors. Using the colors as a guide, with the push of a button the authorities and/or the public can be notified about any type of specific incident, or even if there is a need to evacuate or lockdown.
