SAN ANTONIO — The number of school shootings has risen substantially in the past 10 years. But a program using AI and existing security cameras in schools aims to bring those numbers back down.
The AI platform is called ZeroEyes. It is a proactive gun detection and response system using existing security cameras.
The makers of the platform say while gun control and mental health are being debated and have been for years, they have a solution right now.
Sam Alaimo, ZeroEyes co-founder told KENS 5, “We are literally detecting guns right now, every single week. We’re trying to address the problem as best we can right now with the with the technology we have.”
With ZeroEyes, once a gun is exposed in front of a camera, the platform picks it up. Alerts then go to the ZeroEyes operating center where law enforcement will confirm if it is a real weapon and threat, and will dispatch the alert to the user. In this case that’s the school.
“So gun in the parking lot within three to five seconds. If you’re the school, you will have your hands on an alert with a picture of the shooter, the location and the time,” added Alaimo.
ZeroEyes says about six out of every ten teenagers are worried about a shooting at their school. Just over six out of every ten parents are concerned about a shooting happening at their child’s school. And 70% of the American Federation of Teachers say the threat of gun violence affects the learning environment.
The Corpus Christi ISD says the program saved valuable resources multiple times by helping detect swatting.
Kirby Warnke, the Corpus Christi Police Department Chief said, “Someone had swatted us. Well, ZeroEyes saw that.” The technology and a human at the operations center looked into the call and determined there was no reason to send out an alert.
“But they saw that law enforcement was already present. So they did not have to send us,” added Chief Warnke.
He says the CCISD uses the platform in addition to the typical school security. Chief Warnke told KENS 5, “It’s not like a police officer walking in the hall. You can see the police officer there. Right there. Zero guys works in the ether, so it’s kind of behind the scenes basically having our back.”
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