CHICAGO — The Chicago Transit Authority announced in late August it was running an AI gun-detection pilot program as part of a series of securi

CTA’s New AI Gun-Detection Program Shrouded In Secrecy — With No End Date Planned

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2024-09-20 16:30:03

CHICAGO — The Chicago Transit Authority announced in late August it was running an AI gun-detection pilot program as part of a series of security measures to make its system safer.

Then, a week after the program was announced, a quadruple murder on a Blue Line train made national headlines and immediately generated a new round of questions about the CTA’s approach to crime.

Agency leaders quickly stated that CTA cameras helped police track down a suspect, but that the new gun-detection program with ZeroEyes wasn’t installed in the affected portion of the Blue Line.

Yet those comments also highlighted how little the CTA has revealed about its contract with ZeroEyes and the way it might fill gaps in the agency’s security plans.

The CTA didn’t engage in a competitive bidding process for the pilot, and the agency failed to hold an open discussion with its own governing board about the AI gun-detection program. CTA officials have refused to answer questions about key features of the program or their decision to pay the tech firm to launch a pilot with no clear end date.