Eagle Eye Networks, a global company in cloud video surveillance, introduced Eagle Eye Gun Detection, a new layer of protection for schools and businesses that works with existing security cameras and infrastructure, at an exclusive press conference offered to a select number of industry media outlets.

Held at the Capital Factory in Austin, the press conference allowed leaders from St. Thomas University in Houston, Valor School in Austin, St. Julian Episcopal Church in Austin, the Capital Factory, law enforcement, and security technology experts to share why they are adopting the technology.

The Detection Imperative & Real-World Applications

Gun violence is now the leading cause of death for children and teens in the United States, surpassing car accidents and other causes in recent years, according to data from the CDC. In 2024, there were 503 mass shootings in the United States. More than 3,700 children and teens under 18 were injured, and 1,403 died. It is also a major public safety, public health, and economic concern. The annual economic impact of gun violence in the U.S. is estimated at $557 billion, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

“I’m one of those chiefs [who] thinks AI is going to solve a lot of problems for us,” said H.E. Jenkins, chief of police, University of St. Thomas. “All the technology that’s coming out … is a game changer for us because we can shut down our buildings, make sure they’re safe at night and that nobody’s getting into those buildings. Gun detection is another one of those layers that we want to put [in place].”

In 2024, Jenkins and his team dealt with an armed man chasing a 16-year-old boy into a restaurant. “When my officers were alerted of it, they finally caught him two blocks off of campus. He had two handguns on him,” Jenkins said. “I believe if we would have had [Eagle Eye’s solution] installed in particular areas, we could have detected it a little bit sooner that he had these guns on him.”

Earlier in his career, as a new chief, Jenkins found a weapon near a university. The only route to get the gun back to the police department was to carry it through the middle of the campus, which he did. “Nobody called us, nobody said anything, nobody did anything,” Jenkins said, which shocked him, because he nobody knew who he was at the time. He believes, with Eagle Eye’s offering, they would have certainly received a call about the situation. “Now, it would have been solved very easily because I’m the chief, but those are real-world scenarios that we’re dealing with that can help us detect this a lot sooner,” he added.

Joshua Baer, founder and CEO, Capital Factory, which hosted the Eagle Eye press conference, provided another real-world example: the 2015 shooting of cab driver Conrado Contreras at the Omni Austin Hotel Downtown. The perpetrator, Michael Holt, carried a rifle on his shoulder through the hotel for around 15 minutes prior to the shooting. “Nobody did anything. Nobody said anything. Nobody reacted,” Baer said. He believes having technology like Eagle Eye’s gun detection solution would have made an incredible difference.

The Reseller Opportunity

Eagle Eye works 100% through resellers. “We believe very strongly that their expertise is needed for proper installation of cameras,” said Dean Drako, CEO, Eagle Eye Networks. “In this particular case, I think the expertise that they’re going to bring to the equation is even more significant. This is an opportunity for them to be the expert for the customer in how to properly deploy this. We’ve developed a whole lot of training at Eagle Eye to help those resellers get trained up on how to properly deploy gun detection technology.

“There’s another opportunity because a lot of the [end users] don’t have a real ‘response plan.’  … It’s a modest effort, but there’s an opportunity for the resellers to bring in the appropriate experts with the customers and develop that response plan and thereby help those end customers have a holistic solution,” Drako added. “The Eagle Eye gun detection is one layer in a system to protect. It’s not what we would recommend as the only layer, so there’s another opportunity for those resellers to be the experts and advise customers on a layered approach.”

Making Communities Safer

“What we wanted was an easy and affordable technology to make our community safer and safer,” Drako said. “There are millions of security cameras in the world today, but they are not generally used for proactive security. What are they used for? They record video and then somebody looks at it when something went wrong after the fact to see what happened. We’re on a mission at Eagle Eye to change how all of those millions of security cameras throughout the world are used.”

A digital camera with a minimum of four megapixels is required for the solution; analog cameras are not applicable. “The general deployment methodology is to initially deploy and protect entrances and exits, typically two cameras at each entrance and exit so that we’re getting both sides of the individuals coming and going,” Drako said. “The key is that you don’t need special cameras. You can use existing cameras, but you’ll typically have to enhance the deployment a little bit because most people have only deployed one camera entrance and exits.”

Eagle Eye Gun Detection analyzes video streams with AI to detect brandished guns. “Every second counts,” Drako said. “Early game gun detection [gives] the tools and businesses valuable time to respond, to react, and to potentially save lives.”

Combined with Eagle Eye 911 Camera Sharing, the 911 center also gains secure access, enabling 911 operators to give first responders vital information about what is happening at the scene of an emergency.

Camera to Cloud to Human Confirmation

The solution has been in development for approximately three years. “The [research and development] team at Eagle Eye has been maniacally focused on perfecting it, testing it, and getting it to a place where we felt it was deployable and useful into society,” Drako said.

Eagle Eye engineered a triple-layer verification system that uses two levels of AI and one level of human verification:

1. Rapid Edge AI: Video from security cameras is continuously analyzed for potential brandished guns by the Eagle Eye AI Bridge on location at the school or business. An AI model, appropriately sized for widespread edge deployment, is utilized.
2. Advanced Cloud AI: When a potential gun is detected, the appropriate video is instantly transmitted to the Eagle Eye Cloud for analysis by a large-scale Eagle Eye AI model. The use of a very large model in the cloud provides accuracy and reduces false positives.
3. Eagle Eye Human Review Service: When the Advanced Cloud AI detects an actual gun, the Eagle Eye Human Review Service, staffed with trained professionals, verifies that a gun is present. The customer’s emergency response sequence and notifications are then executed. The response, designed by the client, typically includes SMS messages, phone calls, and emails to key security or company personnel, law enforcement, response service, key executives, and emergency responders.

Multi-Layered Approach

Eagle Eye recognizes that no single technology can solve gun violence; it requires a multi-layered approach where different techniques — such as visual gun detection, access control, metal detectors, panic buttons, training of staff and students, execution of practice drills, fencing, secure areas, and other physical barriers — provide different layers of security and work in concert with human oversight to ensure optimal protection. Eagle Eye Gun Detection adds a new layer that should be used in a comprehensive approach to ensure safety.

Drako said ‘panicked crowd’ is also in the company’s pipeline, though not something the team has explored yes. “Our mission is to turn these cameras into proactive detectors that then … can actually start to take actions,” he said.

The Eagle Eye gun detection solution currently includes the following features:

• The Eagle Eye Cloud VMS (video management system), integrated gun detection. 
• As part of the Eagle Eye Cloud VMS, an open platform, Eagle Eye Gun Detection customers can add additional AI features and integrate with an unlimited number of third-party technology providers.
• Eagle Eye Gun Detection works in conjunction with Eagle Eye 911 Camera Sharing to give 911 operators access to live and recorded video feeds from security cameras near the scene of an emergency.

Drako concluded, “At Eagle Eye Networks, making the world a safer place is our mission. Working with organizations like the Capital Factory, St. Thomas University, Valor Schools, St. Julian Episcopal Church, alongside our dedicated law enforcement and public officials, the launch of Eagle Eye Gun Detection is much more than a product launch, it’s a community-supported security and safety initiative.”