Controversial gun-detecting tech goes live at NYC’s Fulton Street subway station
Mayor Eric Adams’ controversial plan to install gun-detecting tech in the Big Apple’s beleaguered transit system was booted up Friday in lower Manhattan.
The weapons scanner pilot program from company Evolv, which was unveiled by the tech-loving mayor in March, went live in the Fulton Street station at around 4 p.m., ahead of the evening commute.
A Post reporter observed passengers forking over their handbags and backpacks to police for inspection before they passed through the electronic detector, where there was a sea of additional officers waiting on the other side. Once cleared, they walked back and retrieved their items.
One police officer wearing rubber gloves was seen thoroughly searching one straphanger’s black backpack, carefully going through each pocket.
Commuters who spoke to The Post welcomed the scanners — as long as they are accurate and don’t hold up the hurried commuters.
“I don’t have a weapon, so I don’t mind,” said Ethan Lu, a 30-year-old software engineer from Brooklyn.
“If it makes it harder to enter, then it’s not good,” he said, adding, “If they don’t do a good job, people will complain about it.”
One confused man was seen explaining to police that he was wearing steel-toed shoes after he set off the alarm.
“They’ve been complying,” an NYPD officer monitoring the gun scanner said of commuters. “That’s the name of the game.”
When the program is implemented only random people — every five people or so — will be selected to go through the detector, Adams told reporters at a press conference Friday evening.
He described the new weapons technology surveillance pilot, which uses electromagnetic technology, as “groundbreaking” — noting scanners will be placed at “select” stations throughout the city “over the next month.”
The technology is already being used at several high-trafficked parts of the city, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Citi Field.
“Our subway system is the lifeblood of our city. In the beginning of my administration, we saw a horrific shooting that took place in Sunset Park, and we know when you’re in close confinement like this, how dangerous it is when a person is armed,” Hizzoner said.
“The goal is to prevent that taking place in the first place.”
Adams noted following the bump in subway crimes in early 2024 there’s been a 7.8% reduction in transit crime since.
He claimed robberies are “at their lowest levels in recorded history” in the subway system.
Adams has been hinting since last week that straphangers could soon see the detectors at subway stations — but his administration has been mum on where and when the program would actually start.
Melissa Williams, a 40-year-old who also lives in Brooklyn, said, “I think in this day and age, we need it.
“I work security in a building and I see what type of things people try to bring in on a regular basis,” she said.
“My concern is that it will affect the traffic, moving in and out of the train station, but we need it. There is a lot of violence on the trains.”
The program though could land the administration in court with civil rights groups already threatening legal action.
“Mayor Adams is on notice that if his Administration proceeds with plans to install this fraught, invasive, and ineffective technology at local subway stations to the detriment of all New Yorkers, we’ll see him in court,” Jennvine Wong, a supervising attorney in the Legal Aid Society’s Cop Accountability Project, said Friday morning.
Legal Aid and the New York Civil Liberties Union announced they are planning to sue the city, arguing the detectors would violate straphangers’ Fourth Amendment rights against illegal searches and seizures.
The groups also raised concerns about the weapons detection company company Evolv, which is currently facing a lawsuit from investors who claim the firm overstated the effectiveness of their gun scanners.
“City officials have admitted that these scanners are primarily to combat some riders’ ‘perceptions’ that they are unsafe on the subway — this is not a justifiable basis to violate the Constitution,” said NYCLU attorney Daniel Lambright.
“Slowing down the subway with error-prone scanners and flooding our subways with cops is mere security theater that turns every New Yorker into a suspect and takes resources away from supportive services that will help keep crime at low rates like more housing, mental health, and employment services.”
Additional reporting by Joe Marino
