New York City turns to AI-powered scanners in push to keep guns out of the subway system

NEW YORK — New York City Switches to AI-Powered Scanners in a new bid to ban guns from the subway system, but the pilot program that launched Friday has already been met with skepticism from riders and threats of a lawsuit from civil rights advocates who argue the searches are unconstitutional.

The Evolv scanner, a sleek-looking gun detector that uses artificial intelligence to scan passengers for weapons and knives, was on display in a Lower Manhattan subway station, where Mayor Eric Adams announced the 30-day trial.

“This is good technology,” Adams said at the Fulton Center near the World Trade Center.

“Would I prefer not to have to be scanned? Yes,” he added. “But if you talked to the average subway rider, they would say they don’t want guns on their subway system, and if that means using scanners, then let them use scanners.”

Adams, a self-described “techie,” stressed that the scanners are still in the experimental phase. The machines, which are already in use at baseball stadiums and other venues, are deployed at a small number of stations, and only a fraction of riders will have to walk through them. The city has not signed a contract with Evolv, and Adams said other companies were welcome to pitch their own gun-detection innovations.

The scanners, about 6 feet tall, are emblazoned with the city’s police department logo and a multicolored light display. If a weapon is detected, an alert is sent to a tablet monitored by two NYPD officers. The system is not intended to alert everyday objects such as phones and laptops, though a reporter’s iPad case set it off Friday.

The scanners immediately sparked protests from civil rights advocates. The New York Civil Liberties Union and the Legal Aid Society said they would sue the city if the technology were rolled out widely, arguing the searches violated passengers’ constitutional rights.

“City officials have admitted that these scanners are primarily intended to combat the ‘perception’ among some riders that they are unsafe on the subway. This is not a justification for violating the Constitution,” said NYCLU attorney Daniel Lambright.

The scanners have also raised concerns among travelers, who say it is not practical or reasonable to subject millions of commuters to security checks.

“It’s not going to work,” said Dre Thomas, 25, shaking his head at the device. “It would have to be at every point in the subway. I don’t see how that’s possible. It just seems like another way to waste taxpayer money.”

Wyatt Hotis, 29, said he thought the scanners were a good idea but that they were “not the root of the problem” since people being pushed onto the tracks was a bigger safety concern. Hotis instead suggested adding guardrails and barriers to the platforms, along with more officers to patrol them.

Margaret Bortner, one of the first travelers to go through the scanner, described the 30-second process as painless, but did not think it was necessary to do it at every station.

“There are more important things officers should be doing,” she said.

Although there have been incidents that have received a lot of attention, such as a shooting in 2022 in a Brooklyn train that injured 10 people, crime in the New York City subway system has declined in recent years. Overall, violent crime is rare in the system, with train cars and stations generally as safe as any other public place.

So far this year, crime on the subway is down 8% through July 21 compared with the same period in 2023, according to police data. There were five murders on the subway last year, down from 10 the year before, according to police.

Adams has long talked about adding gun detectors to the subway system. He proposed this week that “eventually every turnstile could identify if someone is carrying a weapon,” but that would require the city to deploy thousands of police officers to respond to gun reports.

Experts have also raised doubts about the feasibility of adding the technology to the city’s sprawling subway system, which includes 472 stations with multiple entrances and exits. Fulton Center, the subway hub where the mayor spoke, illustrates the challenges of deploying the detectors in a system that’s designed to be as accessible as possible.

There are multiple entrances spread across several blocks, with dozens of turnstiles used by as many as 300,000 passengers a day. During rush hour, they often rush to catch a train. Anyone who wanted to bring a weapon inside without having to go through a scanner could simply walk to another entrance or a nearby station.

Evolv CEO Peter George himself has admitted that subways are “not a great use case” for the scanners, according to the Daily News.

Evolv has said its scanning system uses artificial intelligence to screen up to 3,600 people per hour, quickly detecting the “signatures” of guns, knives and explosives, without alerting mobile phones and other metal devices.

The company has faced a series of lawsuits in recent years, along with federal investigations into its marketing practices. Evolv told investors last year that it had been approached by the Federal Trade Commission, and in February it said it had been approached by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as part of a “fact-finding inquiry.”

Earlier this year, investors filed a class action lawsuitaccusing the company’s executives of exaggerating the devices’ capabilities and claiming that “Evolv does not reliably detect knives or weapons.” The company has claimed that it is the target of a disinformation campaign by those “seeking to discredit the company.”

New York City has experimented with various security measures to ensure the protection of its vast subway system. In 2005, the NYPD conducted a pilot project to investigate the feasibility of using explosive detection technology in the subway.

Then the department began randomly searching the bags of people entering the subway system. That effort was also carried out with much fanfare, but such bag checks — while not completely abolished — are now rare.

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Associated Press reporter Karen Matthews contributed to this report.