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At its first meeting of January and the new year, the South Williamsport Area School Board approved a pilot year partnership with AI firearm detection company Zero Eyes Monday night.
The program was brought to the attention of superintendent Dr. Eric Briggs by school police officer Douglass Hoffman and Dwight Woodley, Director of Innovative Learning and Information Systems, and will see its initial fee of $82,000 paid for through a grant provided by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD).
Zero Eyes is a Pennsylvania-based company that was started out of Philadelphia in 2018, shortly after the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which killed 17 people, Kieran Carroll Chief Strategy Officer explained.
"Parkland was absolutely the catalyst for the company. At the time most of us were working corporately, in consulting or finance or whatever. Our entire core team came out of the military Special Operations community. When Parkland happened, we said, 'hey, you know, what can we do from a technology perspective, to help mitigate or stop the next Parkland South shooting,' Carroll said.
The software, which gets linked to existing cameras, is trained to spot firearms within milliseconds of them being in the hands of a possible perpetrator, Carroll explained.
The images flagged are then immediately reviewed by the company's highly trained team, after which authorities, etc. can be notified.
"If you remember, the Parkland shooter stayed in a stairwell for about a minute, and he had a visible rifle almost the entire time. There were multiple existing security cameras in that stairwell. It turns out that was sort of a critical 45 seconds that had somebody been watching the cameras, they probably could have done something a little bit more proactive," he said.
The software is currently in use in approximately 500 school districts throughout the country, including 50 to 60 within the state. Zero Eyes has also partnered with the Department of Defense and various other law enforcement and other agencies.
With privacy concerns at all time high, Carroll stressed that their product is strictly used for gun detection.
"We don't sell cameras or look at live feeds. Our software is designed to detect a visible firearm. We don't do facial detection. We don't do anything behavioral. We don't do anything predictive. It's literally gun or no gun," he said, adding that holstered weapons are not detected.
"We are not trying to do anything to infringe on Second Amendment or civil rights," he said.
Additionally because all images flagged by the software are reviewed by a human, most false positives, which can include children mimicking firearms with items such as cell phones, are not escalated to action by authorities.
Because Zero Eyes is a software platform, it can be integrated from the district level all the way to county 911 systems, allowing for easy mass notification of active events.
Asked about the prospect of having to pay for the program out of district funds after the pilot grant expires by board president Todd Engel, Carroll said that while he can't provide a guarantee, he believes there will be at least an additional $5 million provided by the state legislature to sustain the program.
Briggs stated his belief that, barring some unforeseen expense, the program's expected annual fee of between $25 and $50 thousand could be sustained through their mental health and safety funds.
Citing two specific incidents of false positives triggering an escalation by Zero Eyes, board member Summer Bukeavich inquired how often those occur.
"The average false deposit per day that we see is going to be less than point one," Carroll said.
"It is far over and above, better than metal detectors. It provides an on the spot, useful tool, and it is technology, but that's why you have feet on the ground to verify before you move forward," Hoffman said in support of the program, stressing that school officials would be responsible for locking down the school.
"We're going to train teachers and administrators that it can't be used as a crutch. It doesn't take away our responsibility to be aware of what's going on around us," he continued.
"I can't figure out a different way to attack this. If an individual shows up on our school property and shows a gun, I have immediate feedback from human eyes at the touch of a button, Hoffman's notified and 911 called," Briggs said.
"These events happen in three to six minutes. How do I become any more efficient responding to that without having something like this in place during an active shooting event," he continued.
"To be clear, it sounds valuable. But, did we look at any other alternatives, or just this particular company," Bukeavich asked.
"The other particular company I'm looking at here, it appears can also detect fence jumping, knives and all sorts of other things. So I just think it's worth additional research before we make a decision and commit ourselves to the infrastructure of one particular company," she offered.
"I don't feel prepared to make a decision yet," Bukeavich said.
Briggs stressed that the district landed on Zero Eyes because it is the only company through which the grant money is available, but vowed that research can be done over the pilot year that there is no cost to the district.
"We're only in this pilot for a year, so during that time, I can certainly look at other products if that makes you feel any more comfortable. I'm willing to do that research for you," he offered.
Bukeavich abstained from casting a vote, with the rest voting for the program's implementation.
Installation is expected to begin Feb. 1.