DES MOINES, Iowa — As law enforcement agencies and security companies continue to have staff shortages across the country, one company with Iowa ties is seeing an increase in business.
That business is a software agency that helps prevent threats.
In 2021, fewer new officers were hired across the country. And resignations and retirements increased during the same period compared to the previous years, according to Police Executive Research Forum.
Local 5 reached out to multiple law enforcement agencies in central Iowa asking if they were fully staffed. The Des Moines, Urbandale and Marshalltown Police Departments responded and said they were experiencing a shortage.
Katie Krug, the business development manager with Scylla, a software company that uses artificial intelligence, said this is where a company like hers becomes useful.
"We develop AI-powered video analytics for real-time threat detection," Krug said. "So what that means is we're using computer vision and machine learning to monitor existing video cameras that are already in place."
Krug said their artificial intelligence is getting a lot more hits now than before, especially with law enforcement agencies not having the manpower to constantly do things like watch security cameras.
The way their software works: if the camera that has the software installed sees a gun or other weapons, the dashboard the cameras are connected to will start flashing and then the person who is over that system will receive a text message or phone call of a threat being detected.
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Kris Greiner, the vice president of global sales, said there are a lot of benefits to artificial intelligence like theirs. He said it can be used in retail stores to help with shoplifting or see which items are selling better.
It could also be used in homes where elderly people live to help caretakers know if someone has fallen.
Greiner also said their intelligence could have been helpful in situations like the subway shooting in New York City, because it also recognizes faces and would have alerted subway staff their cameras were broken.
"Humans can only watch four or five cameras for four or five minutes before we start missing things, but the AI can watch 24/7," Greiner said. "It never blinks, it never looks away. It just passively sits and looks and watches."
Scylla's software was used in central Iowa by the Iowa State Fair Police.
Local 5 reached out to them about how it's working. Their marketing director Mindy Williamson said the first time they used it was in 2021 for the fair.
She also said in part:
"We are always open to utilizing technology that can provide the Fair of Fairgrounds with an additional set of eyes for objects, actions or behavioral anomalies ..."
Greiner and Krug said this software is currently being used in school districts, baseball stadiums and law enforcement for things like stakeouts.