Michigan school district adopts AI-based gun detection

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A Michigan school district has selected an artificial intelligence (AI)-based gun detection platform as a way to proactively protect its students and faculty against gun-related violence.

Crawford AuSable School District in Grayling, Mich. adopted the A.I.-based gun detection video analytics platform ZeroEyes, which holds a U.S. Department of Homeland Security SAFETY Act Designation. The school district is located in Crawford County in Northern Michigan and comprises four schools serving more than 1,600 preschool and K-12 students.

The new technology will overlay the schools’ existing security cameras to detect when a firearm is brandished and dispatch alerts to first responders and local law enforcement as fast as three to five seconds from detection.

Crawford AuSable selected the AI platform in an effort to keep the community safe amidst rising U.S. mass shooting rates. The Gun Violence Archive has identified more than 100 mass shootings in 2023 to date.

“With children’s lives at stake, there is no question that we must take every possible proactive step we can to keep our students, teachers and staff safe from active shooter threats,” said Tim Sanchez, Superintendent of Crawford AuSable School District.

The Crawford AuSable School District planned to conduct onsite testing of the technology on March 15 in controlled environments onsite to verify that the platform was successfully integrated and will perform as necessary in the event of a real-life threat.

The ZeroEyes' AI was trained to detect only guns and does not perform any facial recognition. The system also does not receive, record, store, or share any personal or biometric data. The system only receives images when a gun has been identified; at all other times, the monitoring screens remain blank.

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