Emergency Lockdown Preparedness: A Conversation with Bolo Stick's Bill Barna
On the Safe and Sound Security Talk podcast, host Sunday Esposito sat down with Bill Barna — 33-year retired police officer, president and inventor of the Bolo Stick door barricade — for an extended conversation about emergency lockdown preparedness, the evolution of school security, and the practical realities of physical door hardening.
The full conversation is available on the Safe and Sound Security Talk show.
The Origin of the Bolo Stick
Barna traced the invention back to 2012-2013, when his children were still in school and active shooter incidents were accelerating. As a police officer, he understood the response timeline: even with modern Single Officer Response Techniques (SORT), there is always a gap between when an incident begins and when law enforcement arrives. He wanted something that could protect his own kids during that gap.
The concept was simple: a floor-mounted barricade that could be deployed in one step, without requiring the teacher to exit the classroom or manipulate a key. Training programs like ALICE were raising awareness, but they were not physically hardening the door — particularly doors with glass panes that an attacker could break to reach the interior lock.
Product Specifications and Real-World Testing
Barna described the Bolo Stick as a device placed at the base of the door, using physics to make forced entry extremely difficult. Manufactured from 1045 cold-rolled steel, the device is rated to withstand over 4,200 pounds of force and works on both in-swing and out-swing doors.
In one real-world test Barna cited during the interview, a SWAT team spent 20 minutes attempting to breach a door equipped with a Bolo Stick. They destroyed part of the door itself, but the barricade device held firm. The device has been used in numerous actual lockdown situations — not under live fire, but in imminent-danger scenarios — with overwhelmingly positive feedback from schools and administrators.
The Two Biggest Adoption Challenges
Barna was candid about the obstacles the company has faced in getting the product into schools:
- Fire codes. Building codes originally required one-motion egress, which created regulatory uncertainty around door barricade devices. Barna testified at state hearings, and Ohio led the way in updating codes to explicitly permit barricade devices. Under NFPA 101 and IBC fire code, barricades must allow egress within 15 seconds in a single motion and must not be used as locking devices during normal operation. Approximately a dozen states have followed Ohio's lead.
- Funding. Schools needed the price point closer to $60 per unit. Barna restructured the manufacturing process and reduced the MSRP from $99 to $69 — a decision that prioritized deployment volume over profit margin.
Layers of Security: Beyond Cameras and Locks
A central theme of the conversation was the concept of layered security. As Barna explained to Esposito, cameras document incidents — they do not physically stop anyone. Effective security requires multiple overlapping measures: School Resource Officers, locked perimeters, surveillance systems, drill training, and physical barricades.
"No single action will provide 100% safety against the violence in an evil mind, but the building of layered protective options dramatically increases the chances of surviving."
The Bolo Stick occupies a specific position in that layered approach: it is the physical barrier that buys time for law enforcement response.
Expansion Beyond Schools
The Bolo Stick product line has expanded beyond classrooms into churches, offices, homes, and military installations. A residential model provides the same floor-mounted barricade for home entry doors, and a sliding door lock addresses a common residential vulnerability — the patio door — as an alternative to makeshift broomsticks and pipes.
The company is an Associate Member of NASRO, endorsed by the Tennessee Sheriffs' Association and the National Organization of Church Safety and Security Management (NOCSSM), and deployed across 39 states and 6 countries. The name itself comes from law enforcement terminology: BOLO stands for "Be On the Lookout."