New York City Turns to AI-Powered Scanners to Prevent Guns from Being Taken to Subways

NEW YORK — New York City is moving to introduce artificial intelligence-powered scanners in a bid to eliminate weapons from subways, but the pilot program launched Friday is already being met with skepticism from riders and the threat of a lawsuit from civil rights advocates who say the checks are unconstitutional.

The Evolv scanner — a sleek-looking gun detector that uses artificial intelligence to scan passengers for firearms and knives — was unveiled at a lower Manhattan subway station, where Mayor Eric Adams announced a 30-day trial.

“It’s good technology,” Adams said at the Fulton Center near the World Trade Center.

“Would I rather we didn’t have to be scanned? Yes,” he added. “But if you talked to a regular subway rider, they would say they don’t want guns on their subway system, and if that means using scanners, then let’s keep the scanners on.”

Adams, a self-described “tech geek,” emphasized that the scanners are still experimental. The machines, already in use at baseball stadiums and other locations, will be deployed at a small number of stations and only a fraction of passengers will be asked to go through them. The city has not entered into a contract with Evolv, and Adams said other companies are welcome to come up with their own innovations in weapon detection.

The scanners, about 6 feet (1.8 meters) tall, have the city police department’s logo and a multicolored light display. When a weapon is detected, an alert is sent to a tablet monitored by two NYPD officers. The system is not supposed to alert everyday items like phones and laptops — although a reporter’s iPad case did trigger it on Friday.

The scanners sparked an immediate outcry from civil rights advocates. The New York Civil Liberties Union and the Legal Aid Society said they would sue the city if the technology were widely deployed, arguing the searches violate passengers’ constitutional rights.

“City officials have acknowledged that these scanners are primarily intended to combat the ‘feeling’ some passengers feel unsafe on the subway — not a valid basis for violating the Constitution,” said NYCLU attorney Daniel Lambright.

The scanners also raised concerns among passengers who said it was neither practical nor likely that millions of people would be subjected to security checks.

“It won’t work,” said Dre Thomas, 25, shaking his head at the device. “It would have to be at every subway station. I don’t see how that’s possible. It seems like another waste of taxpayer money to me.”

Wyatt Hotis, 29, said he thought the scanners were a good idea, but that they “weren’t the heart of the problem,” since people being pushed onto the tracks posed a larger safety issue. Instead, Hotis suggested adding barriers and railings to the platforms, as well as more officers to patrol them.

Margaret Bortner, one of the first people to go through the scanner, described the 30-second process as painless but saw no need for checks at every station.

“There are more important things for officers to deal with,” she said.

While there have been high-profile incidents, such as the 2022 Brooklyn train shooting that injured 10 people, crime on the New York City subway has declined in recent years. Overall, violent crime on the system is rare, and train cars and stations are generally as safe as any other public place.

So far this year, crime on the subway has fallen 8% through July 21 compared with the same period in 2023, according to police data. There were five homicides on the subway last year, compared with 10 the year before, according to police data.

Adams has long considered adding gun detectors to the subway system. This week, he suggested that “eventually every turnstile will be able to identify if someone is carrying a weapon,” but doing so could require the city to dispatch thousands of police officers to respond to gun alerts.

Experts have also expressed doubts about the feasibility of adding the technology to the city’s sprawling subway system, which includes 472 stations with multiple entrances and exits. Fulton Center, the subway hub where the mayor spoke, illustrates the challenges of deploying detectors in a system designed to be as accessible as possible.

There are multiple entrances spread over several blocks, with dozens of turnstiles used by up to 300,000 passengers a day. During rush hour, they are often rushing to catch trains. Anyone who wanted to bring a weapon without going through the scanner could simply go to another entrance or a nearby station.

According to the Daily News, Evolv CEO Peter George admitted that subways are “not the best use case” for scanners.

Evolv said its scanning system uses artificial intelligence to search up to 3,600 people an hour, quickly detecting “signatures” of weapons, knives and explosives while not alerting mobile phones or other metal devices.

The company has faced a wave of lawsuits in recent years, as well as federal investigations into its marketing practices. Evolv told investors last year that it had been contacted by the Federal Trade Commission, and in February it said it had been contacted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as part of a “fact-finding investigation.”

Earlier this year, investors filed a class action lawsuit accusing company executives of exaggerating the devices’ capabilities and claiming that “Evolv does not reliably detect knives or weapons.” The company says it is the target of a disinformation campaign by individuals “motivated to discredit the company.”

New York City has experimented with various security measures to protect its extensive subway system. In 2005, the NYPD conducted a pilot project to test the feasibility of using explosive detection technology in the subway.

The department then began randomly checking the bags of people entering the subway. This initiative was also carried out with great publicity, but such bag checks—though not completely abandoned—are now rare.

__

Associated Press reporter Karen Matthews contributed to this report.