PLYMOUTH, Mich. – The Plymouth Canton School District has implemented a new security system incorporating artificial intelligence into its camera systems to enhance safety.

The Plymouth-Canton Community Schools District has three high schools on one campus with students moving around buildings like a college campus. The cameras are used to help keep students safe are programmed to detect a threat before a person can.

The district has 16,000 students and 1,600 cameras. It‘s impossible to watch 1,600 cameras at once and to catch every problem before it’s too late.

Safety and Security Director Josh Meier said the solution of having too many cameras and not enough eyes is artificial intelligence. And now the district is beta-testing new technology from Motorola that is infused with AI.

It’s a system they tested over the summer, when no students were on campus. The district brought in police officers to act as an assailant and approached the school with a real assault rifle.

The cameras detected the threat in the parking lot, before it could reach the door.

It’s not just rifles, the system can also detect handguns.

When a threat is detected, it automatically sets a series of events in motion: the building goes into lockdown, PA announcements are made and alerts are sent to teachers on a mobile app that has real-time information and a checklist of what to do.

That‘s just one capability of the system. The security team gave the system a list of parameters and things to look out for. With the AI assistance, it’s always learning.

If it detects students that usually transition at 10:30 a.m. move at 11 a.m., it will alert staff that something unusual is happening.

The Plymouth-Canton Community Schools District is one of just two districts in the country working with Motorola to test the system. One thing the school wants to see implemented is automated notifications to law enforcement — information, pictures and videos — when there’s an assailant.