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California Baptist church considering AI to protect itself against shooters

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – The director of safety at a Baptist church in California is preparing his congregation to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to defend themselves against mass shootings, Christian Headlines (CH) reports.

A former law enforcement officer who spent 14 years assigned to an FBI international terrorism squad, Matt Montana, director of safety at Valley Baptist Church in Bakersfield, California, assessed that the church’s four campuses needed some way to identify and intercept a gunman before anyone got hurt, CH reports.

“I came on staff here a little over three years ago after retiring from law enforcement,” Montana told Billy Hallowell on a recent podcast. “And as I assessed the safety needs of our community … I really felt it was important to kind of identify some sort of technology that would allow us to identify if somebody had weapons on our campus.”

Montana went on to contact a company called ZeroEyes, which works to provide “human-verified proactive gun detection and situational awareness software that integrates into existing digital security cameras with a mission to stop mass shootings and gun-related violence,” CH reports. ZeroEyes developed its technology by working with schools to process images frame-by-frame to determine whether a gun could be seen, CH reports. Any flagged image would be sent straight to first responders before a shot was fired.

While Valley Baptist Church has not yet installed the new technology, the congregation is supportive of Montana’s efforts and interest in using AI to protect them against shootings, CH reports. Montana also told Hallowell that it is important for churches and houses of worship to be proactive about installing security systems.