Park City School District will pay $546,000 over the next five years for ZeroEyes, a software company that uses artificial intelligence to detect brandished firearms, to monitor 650 cameras in all 12 schools.

ZeroEyes installs generative AI-based software on existing security cameras owned by businesses, nonprofits or — in this case — schools. If the algorithms detect a firearm, images of the potential weapon are sent to two monitoring centers constantly manned by former members of law enforcement or the military in centers in Hawaii or Pennsylvania. These monitors determine whether there is an actual threat. If so they notify the appropriate law enforcement agency with information such as the kind of firearm and its last known location. According to ZeroEyes, this process takes three to five seconds. 

Asked if the company’s services have been tested by a third-party company, ZeroEyes Senior Vice President of Sales J.T. Wilkins didn’t give any examples but said ZeroEyes is the only company of its kind the Department of Homeland Security has certified under Congress’ 2002 SAFETY Act. The act releases the company from a degree of liability in order “to ensure that the threat of liability does not deter potential manufacturers or sellers of effective anti-terrorism technologies from developing and commercializing technologies that could save lives,” according to the department. 

Wilkins said the designation means that Homeland Security found ZeroEyes to be a reliable product.

“Federally funded research institutes looked up underneath the hood of our company, our business processes, the technology, the operations, really the whole gamut of an array of the tech, and found us deserving of that designation. What that essentially does is give the stamp of approval to anybody that brings us on,” Wilkins said. “The federal government has blessed off on this and is willing to put their stamp of approval on the backside of it.”

He said guns are detected by ZeroEyes every day. He was unable, however, to differentiate the percentage of firearm detections triggered by an actual firearm and detections that were less serious — things such as false alarms, airsoft guns, BB guns, Orbeez guns and Nerf guns.

“Anything that resembles the shape of a firearm is ultimately what we’re going to pick up. Now, what we do with that is a little bit different each time that the system picks that up,” Wilkins explained. “Everybody that’s sitting behind those keyboards and looking at those screens are former law enforcement or military veterans that have been put through pretty high-stress situations and know what to look for. So they’re adding a little bit of context to that situation. … We never want to send a cavalry in in the event of a Nerf gun.”

Depending on the threat level or lack thereof, staff members monitoring ZeroEyes’ detections could send a full dispatch alert to let law enforcement know of a dangerous situation. In other circumstances, they might send a less urgent notification just to let people know what is happening on their school’s campus so they can determine how to best handle the incident.

The technology doesn’t do anything to prevent armed assailants who are concealing or even carrying holstered weapons from entering the school beyond triggering the system’s alert system once those assailants are brandishing their guns, meaning they are in their hands.

The software also doesn’t detect other kinds of weapons, such as knives.

The system is deployed in 40 states, but neither Wilkins nor ZeroEyes Public Relations Spokesperson Mark Prindle could say how many actual firearms have been detected in schools.

“We unfortunately do not have that statistic,” Prindle said.

“When you’re talking about the shape of a firearm, it’s being detected quite frequently,” Wilkins said.

Due to $3 million Utah legislators allocated to provide gun detection to schools throughout the state, other school districts in the state can also apply for ZeroEyes’ services.

While Park City School District’s initial 650 cameras are being monitored without support from state funds, district Chief Operating Officer Michael Tanner said the state will allow 32 more monitored cameras in construction areas in the district.

According to Superintendent Jill Gildea, the district decided to contract with the monitoring service not as a reaction to anything, but as an added preventative measure to several programs and safeguards Park City schools already use.

“There are many preventive measures put into place, from guest check-in at the front of each school to front door cameras, locked vestibule waiting areas, and alert buttons in the event of an emergency,” Gildea said. “All have been part of long-term safety-security evaluations and reviews from architects, security specialists, and even the Office of Homeland Security that occurred prior to my arrival. Even the fencing around the schools is part of planned and preventive safety measures.”

District officials, she added, hold quarterly meetings to determine what the district should implement next, and the district maintains partnerships with the Summit County Sheriff’s Office and the Park City Police Department.

According to ZeroEyes, the company has school customers in Utah, but not any that have given the organization permission to name them.