AFTON, Iowa — East Union Community School District has chosen artificial intelligence-based gun detection video analytics platform ZeroEyes to protect students and faculty against gun-related threats.
Gun-related violence in the U.S. is on the rise, with the Gun Violence Archive reporting 1,121 shooting incidents on school property in 2023. East Union is adding ZeroEyes’ AI gun detection to proactively detect illegally brandished firearms on campus.
“In this day and age, no school is immune to gun-related violence, whether they’re rural or urban,” says Tim Kuehl, superintendent of East Union Community School District. “Considering the rising shooting rates across the country, we are taking no chances. It is our priority to protect our community and ZeroEyes offers an added layer of security to identify potential threats before it’s too late.”
East Union Community School District Picks ZeroEyes
East Union is a rural district serving 500 students in grades pre-K-12. The district “strives to provide a challenging curriculum within a safe environment where students achieve their maximum academic and social potential,” according to the announcement.
ZeroEyes’ AI gun detection and intelligent situational awareness software layers onto existing digital security cameras. If a gun is identified, images are instantly shared with the ZeroEyes Operations Center (ZOC), staffed 24/7/365 by specially trained U.S. military and law enforcement veterans.
If these experts determine that the threat is valid, they dispatch alerts and actionable intelligence — including visual description, gun type, and last known location — to local law enforcement and school staff as quickly as 3 to 5 seconds from detection.
“It is disheartening to see school communities be plagued by senseless violence each and every day,” says Mike Lahiff, CEO and co-founder of ZeroEyes. “But there are steps schools can take to proactively secure their campuses. We are grateful to provide an additional layer of protection for the students and staff in the East Union and Murray Community School Districts.”
