Niagara Falls City School District’s New AI Camera Technology

NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (WKBW) — School safety is back in the national spotlight following the shooting in Georgia on Wednesday.

What kind of technology do our schools have at home to detect and report safety threats? I spoke with a parent, a security guard, and a superintendent in Niagara Falls about the district’s new AI camera system called “Zero Eyes.”

“It’s hard enough to get our kids back to school, but worrying about their safety just adds to the anxiety,” said Staci Rowe, a mother of two students from Niagara Falls. “Every minute of every day… I’m sure… especially today, parents are just in shock about what happened and what’s happening.”

Rowe said she feels safe sending her children to school in the Niagara Falls City School District because of all the safety measures in place. She said she feels confident their district is doing everything it can to protect students from the unthinkable.

“Unfortunately, we have to talk about it, but we have to talk about it,” Superintendent Mark Laurrie said.

The superintendent said they already have security officers, even bulletproof film on the windows and now new artificial intelligence software on all security cameras that scans them for weapons.

“The AI ​​software is installed on all of our external cameras… 300 of them, and if 1/8 of a weapon is displayed, it will detect it and send alerts,” Laurrie explained.

He added that the cameras will be able to detect if someone is carrying a weapon before it reaches the building.

“Those 16 seconds…could have saved many, many lives,” Laurrie said.

According to Laurrie, the alert will first be passed on to a third party to verify whether it is a weapon, and then police and school staff using the app will be notified, who will be able to implement a block.

Kelvin Agagee is one of several district safety officers who will be notified if a weapon is detected.

“There are crazy things happening all over the world, you have to be prepared for any situation,” Agagee said.

The new AI software, purchased last spring, should be up and running by the end of the month.

Laurrie said Grand Island was the first place in the region to install this AI software, followed by Niagara Falls and Niagara Wheatfield. Laurrie said they did a lot of research before purchasing it.