City to spend $294K in conjunction with school district
OCEAN CITY — Ocean City will spend nearly $300,000 over the next five years for a weapon detection service in conjunction with the Ocean City School District.
City Council approved the spending with ZeroEyes Inc. of Conshohocken, Pa., for “threat and weapons detection software and equipment.”
The five-year contract costs $57,800 per year with $5,000 for integrating the system into the city network, for a total cost of $294,000.
Supporting the purchase, Ocean City Police Chief John J. Prettyman wrote that to date there were at least 127 mass shootings across the U.S. and 89 gun-related incidents in schools so far this year.
“Recognizing our responsibility to prepare for active-shooter incidents that have become all too common across the nation,” Prettyman wrote, “the Ocean City Police Department is constantly increasing our ability to prevent and/or respond to gun-related incidents as quickly and as proficiently at possible.
“The ZeroEyes system will deploy an artificial intelligence layer on top of already existing camera systems that will be used to identify firearms,” the chief wrote, noting that the OCPD already has equipment and training to respond to gun-related incidents … “but now we are planning to increase our technological ability to detect and respond to gun-related incidents” with the ZeroEyes software.
He wrote that buying the “groundbreaking artificial intelligence software offered by ZeroEyes will increase our ability to identify active-shooter incidents as they are developing and dramatically reduce police response times to incidents involving firearms in certain public areas.”
Prettyman said the department plans to partner with the school district, under a shared services agreement, to deploy the software “to protect our citizens from gun-related incidents.”
The purchase of the software was approved as part of the consent agenda at Thursday’s meeting with no additional comment on the topic.
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff