SEPTA's board approved a new pilot program Thursday, meant to keep commuters safe. It’s teaming up with a Conshohocken-based company called ZeroEyes to utilize artificial intelligence.
The technology will be installed on 300 of the city’s 30,000 cameras for six months.
The AI searches for objects on the camera’s feeds. If it detects something that resembles a gun, a green box pops up on the screen. A human operator then verifies whether the object is actually a gun, and clicks “dispatch.”
“If you can give five seconds back to a first responder, that’s potentially lives saved,” said JT Wilkins, senior vice president of sales for ZeroEyes. “Our ultimate goal is to put situational awareness in the hands of first responders and help them understand what they‘re walking into and what they’re facing.”
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SEPTA police hope that early detection can cut down on a growing number of violent incidents on the transit agency's property.
“This technology will give us some type of early warning that a gun is being displayed somewhere on septa,” Acting Chief of SEPTA Police Charles Lawson said. “We’ll know exactly where it is and whether we get seconds advance notice or minutes, that may be the difference in being able to stop gun violence.”
ZeroEyes’ technology is installed in places like schools, malls and military installations across 30 states. This is the first it’s being used by a major public transit agency. After the pilot, SEPTA's board can decide whether to use AI permanently.
Tech
There are additional resources for people or communities that have endured gun violence in Philadelphia. Further information can be found here.
