Ubicquia Inc. has finished buying Databuoy Corporation, the company behind the Shotpoint multi-threat sensor and locator platform. The Ubicquia Databuoy acquisition, announced on September 14, 2026 from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, folds gunfire detection and localization, drone detection, precision incident reporting and mobile panic-button services into Ubicquia’s UbiShield public safety portfolio. Ubicquia builds intelligent infrastructure platforms for utilities, municipalities and law enforcement agencies, and the deal gives those customers a new set of tools that can be layered onto equipment already in place.
Before the deal, UbiShield covered video analytics for public safety, license plate recognition, and monitoring of traffic, curbs and pedestrians. Databuoy’s customer base spans cities, utilities, retailers, airports, stadiums and school systems, and its sensors work indoors as well as outdoors. That indoor reach moves Ubicquia’s platform inside schools, government buildings and other institutional facilities, rather than keeping it limited to streetlights and poles outside.
How the Ubicquia Databuoy Acquisition Expands UbiShield
Shotpoint is built to spot threats indoors, outdoors and in vertical environments such as multi-story buildings. Its three-dimensional detection can pick out an elevated shooter and trace rifle fire coming from beyond the immediate coverage zone, narrowing the source down to an approximate structure and floor level. The indoor, outdoor and vertical sensors, along with the accompanying software, hold a SAFETY Act Designation from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
One of the central features is that a single Shotpoint sensor network can run several detection services at the same time. The same hardware that pinpoints gunfire can also flag drones, and additional services can be added to sensors already installed without mounting new equipment. For a city or utility that has already invested in a sensor grid, the Ubicquia Databuoy acquisition means drone detection becomes a service that can be switched on rather than a separate hardware purchase.
“Our acquisition of Databuoy allows us to immediately offer multi-threat detection services to our rapidly growing municipal, utility and public safety customer base, while extending our reach into retail, airports, stadiums and K-12 schools.” Ian Aaron, CEO of Ubicquia
Grid Security and the Executive Order Behind the Timing
Ubicquia tied the announcement to a wider national push to protect the U.S. electric grid. Executive Order 14421, issued in August 2026, declared a national emergency over vulnerabilities in the bulk-power system and called for potentially affected equipment to be identified, monitored and secured. Ubicquia already offers grid monitoring, and the Ubicquia Databuoy acquisition lets the company pair that capability with multi-threat sensing to offer utilities a single package covering both grid visibility and physical protection of grid assets.
The company’s platforms attach in minutes to existing streetlights, distribution transformers, substations and other critical infrastructure, and its public safety deployments rely on that same approach of reusing what cities already own instead of building new. Ubicquia says its solutions are in use by more than 1,500 cities and utilities. Alerts from Shotpoint flow into Databuoy’s Know When It Counts, or KWIC, application, which pairs incident reports with maps, floor plans and video from integrated and third-party cameras. KWIC is designed to connect with leading real-time crime centers and 911 platforms so that information lands inside the workflows first responders already use.
Drone Detection, Panic Buttons and What Happens Next
Databuoy’s Geofob mobile panic button runs on the same sensor network as Shotpoint. It can locate a user indoors or outdoors at the push of a button with centimeter accuracy, and the Geofob platform turns existing building-access cards into those panic buttons rather than requiring a separate device. The network’s drone security function uses the same infrastructure that localizes gunfire, so one installation can serve several purposes. Databuoy’s Shotpoint technology grew out of research sponsored by DARPA, the U.S. Army and the U.S. Navy, and has been applied to public safety and security problems since 2014.
“We are incredibly proud of what the Databuoy team has built and the impact our technology is already having in public safety. Ubicquia provides an exciting opportunity to take that technology to the next level and reach a broader market.” Kathleen Griggs, CEO of Databuoy
The Databuoy team is being folded fully into Ubicquia and will keep working out of Vienna, Virginia. Shotpoint and Geofob now sit inside Ubicquia’s UbiShield Public Safety platform and are available to customers right away. Ubicquia itself remains headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and describes its broader mission as giving utilities, municipalities and public safety agencies better visibility into the infrastructure they manage without the cost and disruption of new construction.
