Appomattox County Schools to use AI technology to keep students safe
APPOMATTOX COUNTY, Va. March 24th, 2024 Appomattox County Public Schools is partnering with an AI-based gun detection program to increase safety efforts on school grounds.
APCS partnered with ZeroEyes. In an effort to increase safety in Appomattox County schools, this new software is designed to help law enforcement respond to an emergency situation, such as an active shooter, in a matter of seconds.
“We are doing everything we can and exploring every technology out there to make sure that we have the safest campus that we possibly can,” said Annette Bennett, Appomattox County Public Schools superintendent.
Bennett said the school has several security cameras already in use.
“We already have a pretty sophisticated camera system in all of our buildings and we are able to use over 200 cameras for campus. That’s going to cover a lot of space,” explained Bennett.
Bennett said the partnership with ZeroEyes was not initiated due to any on-campus violence, but because they want to be prepared in case of an emergency.
“We haven’t seen any threats such as this or been aware of anyone with weapons on our campus; however, in today’s world, you can never be too safe and it’s definitely something that we want to be, err on the side of safety, and be ready for if that were to happen, and just pray that it never does,” said Bennett.
Statistics show the first five minutes of any mass shooting event is the most critical. That is why Appomattox County Schools is taking an extra step toward secure schools.
“For us to be able to get them an image and a location and a timestamp of that shooter down to the second and to get that to them within three to five seconds can eliminate seconds or minutes of them potentially holding outside,” said Sam Alaimo, ZeroEyes co-founder.
The AI-based technology can detect guns in seconds by using an algorithm to detect weapons. If a weapon is exposed in front of a security camera, an alert is sent to a monitoring center called a ZOC. The ZOC is staffed 24/7 with former military veterans and law enforcement, comfortable working under pressure and identifying guns.
If they receive an alert that a gun is detected on campus, they will dispatch the information to the district and all local law enforcement.
“We can send an SMS, we can send a text message. We can send it through their video management system. We have call trees; we actually talk to somebody, they get an image of that detection. From that image they can see what sort of weapon system the shooter has, the exact location, the shooter and the exact timestamp of when the shooter was there,” said Alaimo.
Alaimo met the other co-founders in SEAL teams in 2008, and in 2018, ZeroEyes was established.
WDBJ7 asked about privacy concerns with this type of technology. Alaimo said the software doesn’t detect faces and doesn’t stream live video.
Appomattox County Schools will start implementing the technology over the next few weeks.
