NYC Mayor Unveils Gun Scanners in Subway Amid Violent Crime Surge

New York City mayor Eric Adams (D.) on Thursday introduced the town will get started the usage of gun scanners in its subway stations amid a surge in violent crime in contemporary months.

Adams unveiled a freestanding gun scanner at Manhattan’s Fulton Transit Center on Thursday. “This is our Sputnik moment. Like when Kennedy said we’re going to put a man on the moon … let’s bring on the scanners,” the mayor said, including that the weapon detection device would now not file any commuter’s face or identity. 

Adams famous the brand new generation would permit NYPD officials to observe on a display screen as commuters stroll during the scanners. A weapon’s location would display up as orange at the display screen, enabling officials to habits an instantaneous seek. 

The gun detectors, then again, is probably not put into use till past due June because of the town’s Public Oversight of Surveillance Technology Act handed in 2020, which requires the NYPD to attend a minimum of 90 days sooner than rolling out a surveillance device at a brand new location. The identical scanners have already been put in at some venues in the Big Apple, together with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, CitiField stadium, and One Vanderbilt.

Adams’s announcement got here after he dispatched 1,000 officials in February to the town’s underground transit device in reaction to a surge in homicides, prison attacks, and grand larcenies. Earlier this month, New York governor Kathy Hochul (D.) deployed 1,000 troops and cops, together with 750 National Guard contributors, to patrol and “conduct bag checks in the city’s busiest stations.”