photo by: Associated Press

ZeroEyes analyst Mario Hernandez demonstrates the use of artificial intelligence with surveillance cameras to identify visible guns at the company's operations center, Friday, May 10, 2024, in Conshohocken, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

The Perry-Lecompton school district has implemented an AI gun detection technology to protect students and staff from gun-related threats.

The software is known as ZeroEyes, a multi-analytics weapons detection and threat intelligence platform that is often easily integrated with an existing camera system. It’s a firm founded by military veterans after the fatal shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.

ZeroEyes has multiple security tools, including human-verified weapons detection, and it will alert local law enforcement with images and precise location data seconds after a weapon is detected. Chris Heilig, executive vice president of school safety and technology at ZeroEyes, told the Journal-World that the mission of ZeroEyes is to save lives and save time.

The company has an operation center so individuals can monitor cameras when a potential threat is detected by ZeroEyes to determine if it is credible.

When ZeroEyes’ personnel confirm a threat, they will push out communications and photos to district security and first responders in the area.

“Every time there’s a detection through a camera that has ZeroEyes software on it, the ZeroEyes operation center will dispatch that to the district and to law enforcement,” Heilig said.

This leaves first responders a “breadcrumb trail” to find the threat no matter where they are in the school, Heilig said.

“This person with the weapon travels from the outside of the school to the inside of the school, all the way through the school,” Heilig said. “We can tell law enforcement where the person actually is in the building, (whether) they’re entering through this entrance, they’re in this hallway, they’re moving towards this stairwell, things like that.”

Heilig, a former school superintendent for over a decade, said he was one of the first customers for ZeroEyes. He said the company used one of his school buildings to test the software and go through an active shooter drill.

“Law enforcement not familiar with my building ran through an active shooter drill without the technology … and apprehended that fake active shooter within about three minutes,” Heilig said. “And then, the new scenario using ZeroEyes … cut that response time to less than a minute.”

Heilig said with school shootings on the rise across the country, it has been a bigger stress on school administrators to find ways to keep school children and staff safe from the time they get on the bus to the time they get off.

“It adds an extra layer (of security) where I know that I have highly trained professionals watching my school district,” Heilig said.

Heilig said the cost for districts to implement ZeroEyes varies, but it is often within the range of $20 to $60 per camera depending on the type of camera available.

The school district received funding for the program from the state’s Safe and Secure Firearm Detection Grant Program, administered by the Office of the Kansas Attorney General, to purchase and implement ZeroEyes. The Kansas Legislature appropriated $10 million for the program, with funding distributed across the state’s four congressional districts.

“The safety of our students and staff is our highest priority,” Justin Dunnaway, assistant superintendent of the Perry-Lecompton school district, said in a press release from ZeroEyes. “We are proud to have secured funding through the Kansas firearm detection grant program … This technology adds another proactive layer of protection and aligns with the collaborative safety efforts we’ve been building alongside local law enforcement and community leaders.”

The Journal-World reached out to the Perry-Lecompton school district, but leaders declined to comment.

“Unfortunately, we do not discuss or confirm specific security measures or systems that may be in place at USD 343,” Superintendent Josh Woodward said via email. “Our primary focus is continually evaluating opportunities and strategies to enhance the security of our facilities to support the safety and well-being of our students and staff.”