The authorities have a serious problem NY in recent months due to a rise in gun crime in the city’s metro, prompting Big Apple Mayor Eric Adams to take drastic action.
For this reason, he seeks help from a scanner company to implement artificial intelligence technology capable of detecting weapons in the subway.
Adams’ statement came a week after an altercation at a subway station in Brooklyn in which a man was shot and killed with his own gun after pointing it at another passenger.
The company chosen to provide the service was Evolv, a Massachusetts-based gun detection company whose detectors are used in schools and other locations across the country.
The pilot program will begin in 90 days under the POST Act, which requires the New York Police Department to disclose the surveillance technologies it uses and publish impact and use reports before implementing new technologies. Adams said the city will also use the 90-day waiting period to investigate other vendors. “This city has a technical mayor,” Adams said. “Bring us your technology. We’re going to try.”
The company says the scanners use “safe ultra-low frequency electromagnetic fields and advanced sensors to detect hidden weapons.” Evolv CEO Peter George said the scanners can detect almost any type of weapon.
However, not everything was profitable for this company, as there are several complaints indicating that its machines recognized umbrellas as weapons and passed through heavy iron or other metals that were used to commit crimes.
That’s why the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Trade Commission have launched an investigation into Evolv to make sure that its detections are indeed accurate and compliant.
In March, investors filed a class-action lawsuit alleging the company misrepresented the effectiveness of its products and “misled the general public, customers and investors.”
The pilot has already drawn criticism. “Weapon detection systems are flawed and often cause false alarms,” said a statement from the Legal Aid Society, the city’s largest nonprofit public defender organization. “Contrary to the mayor’s claims, New York should not serve as a testing ground for surveillance corporations; “The public did not agree to participate in these experiments.”
Source: Digital Trends
I am Garth Carter and I work at Gadget Onus. I have specialized in writing for the Hot News section, focusing on topics that are trending and highly relevant to readers. My passion is to present news stories accurately, in an engaging manner that captures the attention of my audience.
