AI weapon detection company seeks to prevent school, other shootings: 'a proactive measure'

ZeroEyes, an artificial intelligence (AI) weapon detection software company, has partnered with Fort Smith public schools in Arkansas to prevent potential firearm threats. 

The human-verified AI gun detection technology integrates AI with existing security cameras to detect firearms with a core mission as a company to prevent mass and active shootings inside schools.

JT Wilkins, ZeroEyes senior vice president of sales, told Fox News Digital the system asks one question. "Is there a gun in this image or not?"

ZeroEyes' human-verified AI gun detection technology. (ZeroEyes)

"We take a snapshot in time that'll go out to our 24/7 365 Manned Operations center that's primarily staffed with former law enforcement and military veterans to make a very quick decision."

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Privacy barriers and bike racks maintain a perimeter at a memorial outside Robb Elementary School, after a video was released showing the May shooting inside the school in Uvalde, Texas, on July 13, 2022. (REUTERS/Kaylee Greenlee Beal)

ZeroEyes' software is used in thousands of buildings for hundreds of customers across 40 states and counting.

Wilkins said the process takes three to five seconds from initial detection to the alert being in the hands of ZeroEyes end users to clients.

The company was founded in 2018 by a team of Navy SEALs and technologists following the Parkland, Florida, school active shooter incident and created to protect people from having to face similar circumstances.

ZeroEyes' 24/7 365 manned operations center.  (ZeroEyes)

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Martin Mahan, deputy superintendent of Fort Smith, Arkansas, public schools, told Fox News Digital "with this new partnership, those cameras will become a proactive measure to deal with threat mitigation."

"The first implementation of the five-year plan is the artificial intelligence camera systems, which our board approved during our last board meeting on February 26th. That's a partnership with ZeroEyes that equips us to take a certain number of our cameras and will utilize most, if not every, camera that faces exterior," he said.

Mahan added that Fort Smith Public Schools are equipped with many levels of security, but they are all reactive responses.

A Forsyth County Sheriff directs law enforcement officers on the scene at Mount Tabor High School on Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2021 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Authorities say one student was killed in a shooting at a North Carolina high school and a suspect has been taken into custody. (Walt Unks/The Winston-Salem Journal via AP)

"We have a lot of layers to mitigate a threat to one of our schools…the recent development around artificial intelligent camera system is another level of mitigation to create another level of safety for our staff and students," Mahan noted.

The school district has its own police force, safety measures on entryways around doors, a reunification plan to unify family with students and staff "stop the bleed" training.

Wilkins said the operations center is pivotal to adding context to alert situations, ensuring that they are given the appropriate response.

"We're not sending the cavalry in off of a Nerf gun or something along those lines. They'll go use a different alerting mechanism to tell the school district…that there's a Nerf gun… a water gun or a water pistol, an air-soft kind of gun that is a non-lethal type of threat on their campus…that prevents an escalated response by potential law enforcement," he noted.