NYPD to Use AI to Increase Subway Safety

Photo byMollie SivaramonUnsplash

Mayor Eric Adams announced on Thursday that the NYPD will soon begin implementing new equipment in subway stations to check straphangers for weapons in an attempt to quell a recent surge of subway violence.

New York's mayor displayed a standalone scanner made by weapons detection company Evolv at the crowded Fulton Transit Center in Lower Manhattan. He highlighted the specifics of an upcoming pilot program.

“This is our Sputnik moment,” Adams said. “Like when Kennedy said we’re going to put a man on the moon … Let’s bring on the scanners.”

The mayor did not specify the number of scanners that would be utilized, nor did he state which stations would have the new preventive equipment installed in the coming months.

The pilot program will begin in 90 days to comply with the POST Act, which mandates the NYPD to disclose the surveillance technologies it uses and publish impact and use statements before new technologies are put into place. Adams said the city will also use the 90-day waiting period to vet other vendors. “This city has a technology mayor,” Adams said. “Bring us your technologies. Let us test it.”

Adams pointed out that the NYPD would monitor a screen while a commuter passed through the apparatus. If a firearm is detected, the location of the gun will flash orange, allowing the police to search the person.

Michael Gerber, the city's Deputy Commissioner of Legal Matters, agreed that it was a New Yorker's right to refuse to pass through the devices, but he did not clarify if a straphanger would still be permitted to board a train if they refused.

“If someone who is coming into the subway system, they see this machine, they turn around, they walk away, that’s their right. No one is required to go through the machine,” he said. “I want to be very clear, if someone walks away, that’s not probable cause, not reasonable suspicion, it’s nothing.”

The pilot program for detectors is expected to get underway in June 2024.