SUMMIT COUNTY, Utah — As students, teachers and parents across Utah prepare for a new school year, officials are also rethinking procedures for things many would have never considered a generation or two ago.
Next up, literacy, math and…school safety.
Summit County School District officials say they now have a new, less intrusive tool to keep schools safe.
“This is just another layer of our security platform,” district CEO Mike Tanner said.
The district looked at several security options before settling on one called “Zero Eyes.”
“The Zero Eyes system uses artificial intelligence to monitor existing camera systems, so there was no need to install new cameras, and it only monitors one thing: unholstered firearms,” he explained.
The system has been up and running since late last school year, but this school year is the first time it's been fully utilized. There are about 650 cameras installed throughout Summit County School District buildings.
Tanner said one of the system's most attractive features is that it operates 24/7: Zero Eyes is always on, whether on campus, in the parking lots or anywhere security cameras are already installed.
If someone is spotted carrying or brandishing a gun, a signal is sent to an operations center in Hawaii, which immediately determines if the threat is real.
“It's a detection platform, not a surveillance platform,” Tanner added. “It's not intrusive, it doesn't store images of kids, it just looks through the cameras all day long and looks for weapons.”
If a weapon is detected, an integrated system called Aegix notifies school officials and local law enforcement within seconds.
“The biggest challenge during an incident is making sure people are properly informed,” said Michael Huff, chief technology officer at Aegix Global. “You don't want people to go on TikTok to find out what's going on, but that happens all the time.”
Tanner hopes “Zero Eyes” will never be needed and that teachers, staff and students will never know it exists.
“We want to create a safe and inviting educational environment, but we don't want security to affect education,” Tanner said. “I think having kids go through metal detectors is a big red flag for the school.”
