North Carolina schools and businesses may soon adopt cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology to assist law enforcement and security teams in identifying potential active shooter threats with unprecedented speed and accuracy.
Foxhole Consulting, led by CEO Malcolm Lewis, a former paratrooper, is pioneering the adoption of the Omnilert AI Gun Detection System, an innovative solution designed to enhance security measures for schools and businesses across the country.
In active shooter situations, every second counts, and rapid identification of a potential gunman can be a matter of life or death.
The Omnilert AI Gun Detection System offers security personnel rapid response times. “This AI gun detection system, it will identify a weapon in two seconds, between two and five seconds,” Lewis explained. “[It will] notify law enforcement, EMT and all emergency crews … SROs [school resource officers] on the grounds for schools.”
He adds that the system seamlessly integrates with and analyzes existing security camera networks.
Once activated, the system tracks an intruder from camera to camera, ensuring continuous surveillance coverage and gathering data.
“Once it picks it up on the first camera, it transfers it to where that person is going,” Lewis said. Accordingly, the system can adapt to and follow potential threats in real time.
A novel function of the Omnilert AI Gun Detection System is its ability to distinguish between firearms and harmless objects, such as cellphones.
“With a weapon, when it’s identified as a weapon, it becomes a red square,” Lewis said.
Thus, the technology can provide security personnel with immediate visual cues to potential threats.
The system’s capabilities are derived from a three-step process as described on Omnilert’s website. First, the system assesses a potential threat, identifying the shape of a body without reference to color, gender or other identifying attributes. Next, the AI serves as a gun detector, searching for firearms in close proximity to the body, effectively distinguishing between various types of handguns, shotguns, rifles and military-style weapons, while minimizing false positives. Finally, through analyzing multiple video frames in sequence, the system establishes a coherent track on the threat.
This process enhances situational awareness and helps determine whether a detected firearm poses an active shooter threat.
The end result is active shooter detection within mere seconds, offering security personnel important intelligence in the form of photos, video snippets, camera names and locations.
The information is also shared with the customer’s security operations center for verification, or transmitted to Omnilert’s “five-diamond certified monitoring” centers.
According to the company’s website, the technology also allows for automatic emergency alerts and notifications between law enforcement, ensuring rapid communication and response.
Numerous companies in Fayetteville and central North Carolina are actively considering the adoption of the Omnilert AI Gun Detection System as an addition to their existing video security systems.
