Mass shootings in Buffalo,
New York, and in Uvalde, Texas, intensified the debate over how to deal with
gun violence.
Six weeks ago, a gunman
fired more than 30 shots on a New York City underground train, wounding 10
people.
Ten days ago,
another gunman in the subway killed a passenger in what
officials said appeared to be a random attack.
Following the
attacks, New York City’s mayor suggested a high-tech idea: install security
equipment at subway entrances to detect the presence of guns. You can find
these machines at large sports centers,
airports and many other places where crowds gather.
But security
experts say that the use of such technology in New York’s huge subway system will
be difficult. The machines, called scanners, only provide information. Human
security agents will have to act based on the information.
Evolv, a
Boston-area company, is a large provider of the technology. It has systems in
place at several large sites in Atlanta, Georgia and Nashville, Tennessee.
Evolv recently set up the machines at Lincoln Center in New York City. Its machines can screen 3,600 people in an
hour. However, the technology also makes mistakes, sometimes identifying
non-threatening objects as weapons.
James Dooley
is a retired New York Police Department captain who served in the department’s
transit division. “We have hundreds of stations, and putting someone at every
entrance to every station is logistically impossible,”
he said.
New York City
Mayor Eric Adams is a former police captain. He said he understands the
difficulties of such a plan. Anyway, he will try the scanners.
Mayor Adams
has not publicly discussed how much the machines will cost New York City. But the
price will be very high.
Article from Associated Press (edited)
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