The Labor Day weekend murders of four passengers aboard a CTA blue line train marked another instance of gun violence in Chicago. It also renewed attention on the relatively new weapons detection software being used by the company ZeroEyes.
Earlier this year, the CTA quietly signed a $200,000 pilot program contract with ZeroEyes, the Pennsylvania-based company whose software program helps identify guns.
It’s currently being used on some 200 CTA cameras, according to ZeroEyes’ JT Watkins, who spoke to NBC 5 Investigates during the Global Security Exchange conference in Orlando in late September.
A CTA spokesman told NBC 5 Investigates Wednesday that the software is installed on cameras on CTA platforms – not trains – and did not have any impact or effect on the Labor Day weekend shootings because they happened on a section of track in Forest Park – where the software was not in use.
A months-long investigation by NBC 5 Investigates found that while the weapons detection industry is growing, the detectors have limitations – and in some cases – have failed to detect certain weapons.
When we asked Watkins about ZeroEyes’ software limitations and what he tells potential clients, he said:
“Certainly. We have to be able to see the gun. And that’s just the way the software works, if the gun is not in the frame of the image, unfortunately there’s not much that we can do in that scenario,” Watkins said.
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A 2023 Department of Homeland Security report reviewed the artificial-intelligence-based software developed by ZeroEyes, which detects firearms and found it “easy to use and intuitive” and that it “returns a clear image of the actor holding the gun.” But that same report also noted it cannot “detected concealed weapons” and “has difficulty identifying guns of different colors.”
Navy Pier has been using ZeroEyes for two years.
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Court records show video cameras captured the movement of a suspect after a double fatal shooting there earlier this month.
A spokeswoman for Navy Pier told NBC 5 Investigates in an emailed response that they’ve “been impressed the system’s identification abilities.” She would not comment on what role – if any - it played in the fatal shootings.
When NBC 5 Investigates’ asked about the huge growth on people spending money on security tech and questions about its efficacy and return on investment, Watkins said: “So I look at it like this, Zeroeyes is trying to solve the one percent problem that will have the greatest impact on your organization. We look back to – immediately when we think mass shootings, we think Columbine, Sandy Hook, those types of things.”
By one estimate, the weapons detection industry is growing- currently valued at $700 million and expected to grow to $2 billion by 2033. Watkins - like other security tech vendors we spoke to - said that detectors provide added value, but should be considered part of a layered approach to security coupled with other measures.
