Mayor Eric Adams’ controversial plan to install gun-detecting tech in the Big Apple’s beleaguered transit system is set to boot up Friday in lower Manhattan, The Post has learned.
The weapons scanner pilot program from company Evolv, which was unveiled by the tech-loving mayor in March, will go live in the Fulton Street station ahead of the evening commute, sources said.
A Post reporter observed workers setting up a scanner powered by an extension cord, as well as two iPads and one folding table at the transit center around 3 p.m.
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.
The Post first spotted the tech under a black tablecloth at the Fulton Street station on Thursday next to the turnstiles.
On Friday afternoon, officers started to move the machines around ahead of a 4:45 p.m. press conference to be held by the mayor at the station.
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.”
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.”
It was unclear if they scanners would be set up in any other hubs.
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 argue 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.”
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