New York City officials will begin testing gun-detecting scanners inside subway stations this week in what they say is an effort to address riders’ concerns about crime.
The weapon-detection devices, produced by Evolv Technology, a Massachusetts-based start-up, roughly resemble the metal detectors often found at the entrances of courthouses and concerts. Representatives for Mayor Eric Adams, who announced the pilot, said that a single set of roving scanners would be used to search for weapons at various stations throughout the subway system for one month beginning Thursday or Friday.
It is the latest high-tech solution that Mr. Adams has championed to address public safety concerns. Since taking office, the mayor, who describes himself as a tech geek, has unveiled a robot to patrol the Times Square subway station, expanded the use of drones and boasted about the city’s use of a robotic dog to assist in emergencies.
Critics have argued that Mr. Adams’s latest experiment with the gun detectors is dabbling in expensive and largely untested technology. Surveillance experts have said that leasing a single unit can run about $125,000 over a four-year contract. By comparison, conventional metal detectors can typically be purchased outright for less than $10,000 each.
City officials declined to say where the Evolv devices would be placed because they did not want to tip off people who intended to bring weapons into the system illegally.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the subway, referred questions about the pilot to City Hall. The Police Department did not respond to inquiries about the experiment.
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