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New York City will soon start testing out technology that uses AI to detect guns at subway turnstiles, Mayor Eric Adams said on Thursday. Adams’ announcement comes one week after an altercation at a subway station in Brooklyn in which a man was shot with his own gun after pulling it on another passenger.
Adams said the city is partnering with Evolv, a Massachusetts-based weapons detection company whose detectors are used in schools and venues across the country. Evolv, however, has faced scrutiny over the accuracy of its machines, as well as two government probes and a class action lawsuit by shareholders.
The pilot will start in 90 days, in accordance with the POST Act, which requires the New York City Police Department to disclose the surveillance technologies it uses and publish impact and use statements before new technologies are put into place. Adams said the city will also use the 90-day waiting period to vet other vendors. “This city has a technology mayor,” Adams said. “Bring us your technologies. Let us test it.”
Adams did not say where the scanners will be installed or how many will be in use. Evolv scanners are already in use at Citi Field — Evolv is the “official fan screening provider of the Mets” — Lincoln Center, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Adams temporarily installed an Evolv scanner outside the entrance to City Hall in 2022 after a shooter opened fire on a subway car in Brooklyn. That year, the city ran a similar Evolv pilot at a hospital in the Bronx after a man was shot inside the ER waiting room there. Dozens of school districts across the country have also installed Evolv scanners in attempts to prevent campus shootings.
