Chicago’s transit authority looks to AI-powered gun detection to help curb violent crime

As part of a continuing effort to curb violent crime and enhance security for riders, the Chicago Transit Authority announced Aug. 29 it would begin utilizing an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered gun detection technology in some of its existing digital security cameras.

The technology, provided by Conshohocken, Pa.-based ZeroEyes, works by identifying brandished guns and notifying ZeroEyes operation centers, where human analysts determine whether an AI-detected threat is accurate before alerting local law enforcement. Notifications to local security occur in “often under one minute” after detection and provide the gun type, specific location and a photograph of the suspected gunman, according to the CTA.

The product has been in use at Chicago’s Navy Pier for two years and is costing the CTA $200,000 to implement for a 12-month trial. The program does not include facial recognition technology, according to the CTA.

“Our hope is this added measure of protection provides additional peace of mind to everyone,” CTA President Dorval R. Carter Jr. said in a statement announcing the program.

But any peace of mind instilled by the project was shaken four days later on Sept. 2, when four people were shot dead on the city’s “L” train in a tragedy that made national headlines. The new AI technology was not installed in the train car cameras where the quadruple homicide took place, according to Block Club Chicago, but the incident sparked renewed interest and scrutiny of CTA’s security measures as well as the new AI technology.

While Carter noted Aug. 29 that crime on the city’s mass transit system is “comparatively rare,” an analysis by the Chicago Tribune following the Sept. 2 shooting found that despite an increased CTA security budget in recent years, gun crimes on the transit system have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels. As of late August, 39 gun-related crimes have been reported on CTA trains—more than any year in the past decade except 2022, when recorded gun crimes soared to 60, according to the Tribune.

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