Kansas could soon offer schools up to $5 million in grants to equip security cameras with artificial intelligence systems that can detect people carrying guns. But the governor must approve the spending, and schools must meet some very specific criteria.
The AI software must be patented, “designated as qualified anti-terrorism technology,” meet certain security industry standards, already in use in at least 30 states, and be capable of detecting “three broad classifications of firearms with a minimum of 300 subclassifications” and “at least 2,000 permutations,” among other things.
Currently, only one company meets all these criteria: the same organization that advertised them to Kansas legislators working on the state budget. This company, ZeroEyes, is a fast-growing firm founded by military veterans after a fatal disaster. Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Florida.
Legislation Upcoming Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly highlights two things. After numerous loud shootings, school security has become a multi-billion dollar industry. And in state capitals, some companies are successfully persuading politicians to write their specific corporate decisions into state law.
ZeroEyes also appears to be the only firm eligible to participate in state gun detection programs under laws passed last year in Michigan and Utah, bills passed earlier this year in Florida and Iowa, and laws proposed in Colorado , Louisiana and Wisconsin.
On Friday, Missouri became the latest state to pass legislation targeting ZeroEyes, offering $2.5 million in matching grants to schools to purchase gun detection software designated as “qualified anti-terrorism technology.”
“We don’t pay legislators to write us into their bills,” said ZeroEyes co-founder and chief revenue officer Sam Alaimo. But “if they do that, that means I think they’re doing their homework and making sure they’re getting proven technology.”
ZeroEyes uses artificial intelligence with surveillance cameras to identify visible weapons, then transmits an alert to an operations center staffed 24/7 by former law enforcement officers and military veterans. If ZeroEyes staff confirms that there is a credible threat, an alert will be sent to school management and local authorities.
The goal is to “get the gun before the trigger is pulled or before the gun hits the door,” Alaimo said.
Few doubt the technology. But some question the legislative tactics.
The super-specific Kansas bill, specifically requiring a company to have its products in at least 30 states, is “probably the most egregious thing I’ve ever read” in legislation, said Jason Stoddard, director of school safety at Charles. . Public Schools District in Maryland.
Stoddard is chairman of the newly created National Council of School Safety Officers, which was created to set standards for school safety officers and challenge vendors who are increasingly introducing certain products to legislators.
When states devote millions of dollars to certain products, there is often less money available for other important school security measures, such as electronic door locks, shatterproof windows, communications systems and security personnel, he said.
“Weapon detection using artificial intelligence is amazing,” Stoddard said. “But it’s probably not the priority that 95% of schools in the United States need right now.”
The technology can also be expensive, so some states create grant programs. In Florida, legislation to implement ZeroEyes technology in schools in just two districts cost a total of about $929,000.
ZeroEyes isn’t the only company using AI surveillance systems to detect weapons. One competitor, Omnilert, moved from emergency alert systems to gun detection several years ago, and also offers 24/7 monitoring centers to quickly review AI-detected guns and relay alerts to local officials.
But Omnilert does not yet have a patent on its technology. And the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has not yet listed it as an anti-terrorism technology under a 2002 federal law that provides liability protection to companies. He applied for both.
Although Omnilert is present in hundreds of schools, its products are not available in 30 states, says Mark Franken, Omnilert’s vice president of marketing. But he noted that this should not disqualify his company from government grants.
Franken contacted the Kansas governor’s office in hopes that she would veto specific criteria, which he said “create a kind of anti-competitive environment.”
In Iowa, legislation requiring schools to install gun-detection software was amended to allow companies providing the technology until July 1, 2025 to receive federal counterterrorism technology designation. But Democratic state Rep. Ross Wilburn said the designation was originally intended as an incentive for companies to develop technology.
“It was not created to provide or promote any benefit to any particular company,” Wilburn said during House debate.
In February in Kansas, ZeroEyes’ chief strategy officer presented an overview of its technology to the House K-12 Education Budget Committee. It included a live demonstration of AI gun detection and numerous real-life surveillance photos showing guns in schools, parking lots and transit stations. The presentation also noted that authorities arrested about a dozen people last year as a direct result of ZeroEyes alerts.
Kansas Rep. Adam Thomas, a Republican, initially proposed specifically naming ZeroEyes in the funding legislation. The final version removed the company’s name but kept the criteria that essentially limited it to ZeroEyes.
House K-12 Budget Committee Chair Christy Williams, a Republican, vigorously defended the provision. During talks with senators, she said the state could not afford delays in the standard bidding process for student safety reasons. She also called the company’s technology unique.
“We don’t believe there was any other alternative,” Williams said last month.
The $5 million allocation won’t cover every school, but Thomas said the amount could later increase as people see how well the ZeroEyes technology works.
“My hope is that it does exactly what we’ve seen and prevents gun violence in schools,” Thomas told The Associated Press, “and eventually we can implement it in every school.”