In June, Michigan native Ted Nugent — the guitarist behind the classic-rock staples “Stranglehold” and “Cat Scratch Fever” who has since become known for his right-wing political views and love of the outdoors — brought a gun into the Michigan state Capitol.
Nugent, a dedicated hunter, reportedly was testifying before a committee hearing for the state’s Department of Natural Resources.
Even though the gun detection system installed in the Capitol in Lansing gave an alert about the weapon, the police officer on duty reportedly didn’t see that alert in time. Nugent had left the screening area.
“There is not any piece of equipment that is perfect, and there [can be] a hole in every single layer” of security, Rob Blackshaw, executive director of the Michigan State Capitol Commission, recently told Government Technology.
He was speaking generally about increased efforts to secure state capitols — and other government buildings — during this era of rising political tensions and shocking acts of violence, not about the Nugent incident specifically.
Blackshaw’s comments and experiences with capitol security show that, even as cybersecurity defenses and concerns take up more focus from public officials, physical security and related technology still carry great importance in the public sector.
In 2021, officials made the Michigan state Capitol off-limits for the open carry of weapons; the policy now bans all weapons for visitors.
To support that goal, the state in 2023 hired public safety tech supplier ZeroEyes to deploy what the company describes as an “AI-based gun detection video analytics platform” in the Capitol.
The company says the deal marked the first time its technology was used inside a state capitol building. The move reflects the increasing importance of AI to tools bought by public agencies for public safety — one of the main drivers of business in that space.
The Nugent incident aside — a mistake being blamed on a human, not a machine, and which reportedly involved a 9mm handgun — the ZeroEyes tech has done a solid job of keeping the Capitol gun-free, according to Blackshaw.
He said the system can also spot so-called “ghost guns,” which are privately made firearms designed to be more difficult to track and detect than other such weapons.
The ZeroEyes system compliments the gun-detection magnetometers installed in the Capitol more than four years ago, he said.
The ZeroEyes tech takes the concept further, using images from security cameras, artificial intelligence, what the company calls “intelligent situational awareness software” and real-time reviews from trained military and police veterans to quickly identify potential threats.
But no technology works perfectly — the Nugent incident shows that system breakdowns can happen anywhere — and even if perfection was possible, new threats are always going to emerge, both in the physical realm and in cyber space.
That’s why people such as Blackshaw are always looking ahead. And that also means the potential for fresh sales for suppliers of the relevant technologies.
He is already studying how facial recognition might help better secure the state Capitol, and how to defend against the criminal use of drones — which are also becoming more important to police departments, including some in Michigan.
Providing solid security requires a solid imagination, and Blackshaw can imagine what the future might hold with drones: A criminal might pilot an explosive-laden drone to, say, an entrance to the state Capitol, or a populated outside area adjacent to it.
“Those are the things we continue to do research on,” he said.
