New York authorities are increasing the possibility of placing gun detectors in subway stations. Photo: AFP
After two shootings in the New York subway (one caused one death and the other left 16 injured), city authorities hinted at a possible technological solution to address the problem: the installation of weapon detectors in subway stations so you can detect who’s carrying a gun before they shoot it.
It is worth mentioning that this type of technology exists and is currently being used to detect people with weapons in stadiums and amusement parks. Security experts, however, claim to install such detectors on New York’s transportation system it would be extremely difficultnot to say impossible.
The problem wouldn’t necessarily be the technology, but rather the fact that people should be positioned next to the scanners confront those who carry firearms illegally.
A screen from the Evolv company that shows how the technology to detect weapons works. Photo: AP
“It would be a logistical nightmare. You would have to tie up a lot of officers to do it,” said James Dooley, a retired NYPD captain who worked in the department’s traffic division.
“We have hundreds of stations and we put someone at each entrance to each station it is logistically impossible“, He added.
Although Mayor Eric Adams, a former police captain, acknowledges these difficulties, he thinks it might be worth testing the system in certain places as a deterrent.
“We’d like to be able to appear at a station and not let people know it’s there,” said Adams, “similar to what we do at drive-through checkpoints.”
Police at the time of the arrest of Frank R. James, suspected of having opened fire on a New York City subway, in an accident that left 16 injured. Photo: AP
Two attacks on the New York subway
The need to improve safety on the subway became more urgent in April afterwards an armed man detonated smoke bombs and shot a subway compartment, injuring 10 people.
Then, on May 22, another gunman killed a passenger in what authorities said appeared to be a random attack.
The day after that massacre, Adams again expressed his interest in weapon detection technology. And soon, mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas intensified the debate how to deal with gun violence.
The panels used to detect the weapons of the Evolv company. Photo: AP
In the New York subway, control would not resemble airport checkpoints, an unsustainable solution for a system with 472 stations, all with multiple entrances.
Instead, Adams referred to a technology that uses sensors to detect metal, but also can determine the shape of an objectlike a gun, as people pass by without interruption.
Evolv, a Boston-based company, uses the technology in sports arenas in Atlanta and Nashville, as well as in the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta and, in a recent trial, at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York. although not in any public transport system.
According to the company, the scanners can scan 3,600 people per hour. However, they can also produce false positives with items like Chromebooks.
logistic problems
Identifying someone with a gun is only half the problem.
“It’s also the workforce,” said Donell Harvin, a researcher at the Rand Corporation and former head of government security in Washington, DC.
Adams did not mention it publicly how much the machines could cost you and how they work in New York City, but Harvin acknowledged that the price could be high.
“If you have a determined attacker, a security guard isn’t enough, you have to put in a police officer,” Harvin said. “It’s hard. You can harden all the stations, butwho wants to pay a $ 10 fee? Because the cost will affect the traveler “.
However, since you can’t put cops on every car and every station, Harvin said, “you have to invest in some technology.” “It is very complex, but people have to meet and talk about it, because what is being done now is useless,” he added.
Source: AP
Source: Clarin
