A fast-growing suburban Detroit school district is using the latest technology as part of an ongoing effort to keep its thousands of students safe.

The 16,000-student Plymouth-Canton Community Schools employs artificial intelligence-powered camera systems; and upgraded public address, lockdown and gunshot detection systems within its 28 buildings.

Plus, one almost 5-year-old yellow Lab named Echo.

“I don't know that any other district in the state has their own firearm detection dog walking the halls of their schools every day, but we do. We have Echo here at Plymouth-Canton Schools,” said Josh Meier, PCCS director of school safety & security.

Meier is a former Canton Township public safety director. Seeing a rash of school attacks in recent years, he has made it a priority to obtain additional funding through grants and partnerships, including with communications equipment maker Motorola.

“We have well over 1,600 cameras and devices district-wide, and we can't simply, one person, two people, three people can't simply monitor all those devices,” Meier said. “So, we're using artificial intelligence and the systems behind the scenes to monitor those cameras, monitor those devices, and in real time alert us to something that's abnormal.”

The district, which sits about 30 miles west of Detroit, has investigated about 100 threats since a then-15-year-old killed four fellow students and wounded others at Michigan's Oxford High School in 2021.

“Ultimately, our goal is to make our schools safer for our kids so that they can come here and focus on learning and focus on things that kids should be focused on while they're at school and not worried about their safety or worried about where the next incident may occur within our country,” Meier said.