Brian Ramos
Sunday, June 30, 2024 | 2:00 AM
Earlier this month, a child brought a toy gun onto a Southern Nevada Regional Transportation Commission bus.
Until recently, authorities likely were unaware that children were in the possession of the toy.
However, the gun was discovered by the commission’s recently introduced firearms detection artificial intelligence system.
RTC is believed to be the first transit agency in the U.S. to employ this type of artificial intelligence-based firearm detection technology, and officials said the added security will improve safety for passengers, bus drivers and RTC employees, highlighting the technology as crucial.
“This is extremely important,” said Tom Atteberry, RTC’s director of safety and security, “and we want to do everything we can to enhance our security posture as much as we can in terms of public safety and responding to active shooter incidents or serious incidents involving employees or passengers.”
The system, named ZeroEyes, will be added to RTC’s existing security camera network and uses artificial intelligence technology to detect firearms. Founded and developed in 2018 by a collaborative team of former Navy SEALs and technical experts, ZeroEyes is SAFETY Act designated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Protecting people was one of the main reasons for developing this technology.
RTC requested that the exact locations where its technology is being deployed not be made public for security reasons.
It’s a process that takes just a few seconds, says JT Wilkins, senior vice president of sales at ZeroEyes.
If someone walks into a traffic center brandishing a gun, the security cameras use “computer vision” to identify the weapon based on its shape and other details, then transmit the images to a group of humans in one of Zero Eyes’ control centers in Pennsylvania and Hawaii.
A team of personnel in the control centre works round the clock to perform a final check to determine whether the image is in fact a firearm and whether it poses a threat.
Wilkins explained that if a gun is identified, images and details of its location are sent to the Metropolitan police and RTC security who then respond.
According to Nevada law, riders can only bring a gun onto any of the 39 routes if they have a concealed carry permit, otherwise it is unlawful to “carry or possess an unlawful weapon.”
Since rolling out the technology about a month ago, the system has not detected any real threats — when it detected a child with a toy gun, police were not called and the situation was not reported because there was no threat to the public — but Wilkins said this is an example of Zero Eyes’ detection power.
ZeroEyes was first introduced at RTC facilities about a year ago when Wilkins, in partnership with United Safety and Survivability Corp., began meeting with RTC CEO MJ Maynard to discuss what ZeroEyes could mean in Southern Nevada.
Wilkins said the gun tech was installed earlier this year and has been operational for about a month now. RTC and Zero Eyes signed a one-year contract that could be extended in the future.
“RTC has been a really great agency to work with. Their security network is state of the art and everything we’ve been involved with so far has been great,” Wilkins said. “The team at RTC has been very proactive and we’re so grateful to be able to help the Southern Nevada community and the City of Las Vegas increase bus ridership and make it safer for the people who ride our buses every day.”
Multiple incidents of gun violence have occurred on RTC buses over the past few years.
One of the most recent cases involved a 16-year-old boy who was arrested in November 2023 for allegedly shooting and killing another teenage boy on an RTC bus.
The RTC reported 166 incidents of passenger-on-passenger assaults on buses during fiscal year 2023, which ended last June, down 29 from the previous year but up 16 from 2021, according to transportation commission data.
There were also 35 reported incidents of assaults by passengers on drivers in fiscal year 2023. Atteberry said that as of June 20, 2024, there had been 87 assaults between passengers and 23 assaults by passengers on drivers at RTC, nine of which were for spitting.
Atteberry, who oversees safety measures at the RTC, said violence on public transportation in the region is still low compared to other metropolitan areas with similar populations.
Atteberry said security chiefs from other cities have called him and commented that they are experiencing in a month what it took Las Vegas a year to go through.
With ZeroEyes, they hope to reduce that even further.
“With public transport serving 51 million people, there were just 23 incidents of passenger assault on driver, including nine incidents of spitting – a tiny fraction of the rate in other cities,” Atteberry said.
But ZeroEyes isn’t the only tool RTC has deployed to keep passengers, bus drivers and employees safe.
There’s also the panic button pilot project, rolled out earlier this year, with plans to introduce it in May 2023. Drivers are given a nano device to wear in their pocket that allows them to send a distress signal to RTC security in the event of a crash. With the click of a button, the driver’s location is reported, which Atteberry said has improved response times and reduced strain on bus drivers.
RTC announced on its website that starting today, it will be contracting with a new security company, Inter-Con, to beef up security. The move will see 300 armed officers stationed at Valley Transportation Centers and other RTC facilities to better enforce RTC passenger rules. It was not clear what this “enhanced enforcement” will entail.
Atteberry said even the plexiglass that separates drivers from passengers is being regularly upgraded, and that RTC is “constantly studying and looking at stronger, more durable enclosures” that are already installed on some of the new buses being introduced.
“Ultimately, for Southern Nevada and RTC, we want this to grow and help communities wherever we go,” Wilkins said of Zero Eyes’ AI program. “We’re very aware of what happened in Las Vegas and we hope that our software can be at least part of a layered solution that can prevent or deter such incidents from happening in Las Vegas in the future.”
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