Weapons scanners to be installed at some HSC entrances in coming weeks Part of plan to ‘improve safety and security’: health minister By: Chris Kitching Posted: 6:14 PM CST Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025

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This article was published 21/01/2025 (615 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

AI-powered weapon detectors will be installed at three entrances on Health Sciences Centre’s campus in a few weeks, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara told the Free Press Tuesday.

The technology will be used at the adult emergency room, children’s ER and the Crisis Response Centre, which provides mental health services, in response to concerns about violent incidents and safety.

“We’re moving as quickly as we possibly can to get these scanners into HSC at the entrances there,” Asagwara said. “The weapons detectors will be on site in a few weeks, and we’re looking forward to this being another part of a comprehensive plan to improve safety and security.”

Health officials did not disclose the name of the company that was selected to provide scanners, nor the cost of the program.

“Procurement is not yet complete, so it’s still premature to disclose,” a spokesperson for Shared Health, which operates HSC, wrote in an email.

Two different systems were tested by trained staff at ER and the Crisis Response Centre entrances last summer.

Officials concluded both were effective at finding “items of concern,” after reviewing data from the trial period, while feedback from staff, patients and visitors indicated they felt safer, Asagwara said.

The health minister said the model that was chosen has “less of a presence” than the other system that was trialed.

“It’s great when you can have weapons detector technology that is not very disruptive to the space and not intimidating, and also very effective,” they said.

“People are bringing weapons in all the time.”–Darlene Jackson

“We also recognize there’s no one method of security that’s 100 per cent effective. This is about taking a comprehensive approach.”

Asagwara did not identify the successful vendor. In response to a question about which company was chosen, the minister said they would get that information for a Free Press reporter.

Asagwara said officials consulted experts and spoke to AI detector users, including True North Sports & Entertainment, to ensure the government is following “best practices” and making “informed investments” to improve safety and security.

True North uses U.S.-based Evolv Technology’s Express detection system at Canada Life Centre. Evolv has faced claims that its scanners failed to detect weapons several times in U.S. schools.

A student who was stabbed at a school in Utica, N.Y., in 2022 claimed an Evolv detector failed to find the knife used by his attacker.

Evolv and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission recently reached a settlement, after the FTC accused the Massachusetts-based company of deceptively claiming its Express scanners — used in thousands of American schools and in many sports stadiums and hospitals — would detect all weapons, and were more effective than traditional metal detectors. Evolv disputed the allegations and did not admit wrongdoing, a company statement said.

Asagwara confirmed weapon detectors are coming soon to HSC, after the Manitoba Nurses Union, in a social media post, called on the government to explain when the technology will be installed.

The union said it received positive feedback from nurses, following the trial at Manitoba’s largest hospital.

MNU president Darlene Jackson said the union received no information about when detectors would make a permanent return, after they were removed at the end of the pilot.

“I am a little concerned with the lack of transparency from this government,” she said.

Jackson said members are concerned about violence and visitors bringing weapons into hospitals.

“People are bringing weapons in all the time,” she said.

“Metal detectors are the surer bet if your goal is ‘we need to keep 100 per cent of weapons out of our building.”–Conor Healy

While she did not know the specific circumstances, Jackson said staff reported someone recently brought a gun into the ER at Children’s Hospital, which is part of the sprawling HSC campus.

The Shared Health spokesperson said a concealed weapon was found when a person acting suspiciously in the children’s ER was searched last fall.

A security guard in HSC’s adult ER was stabbed by a patient in February 2024.

Jackson questioned if AI detectors will be used in other hospitals. She cited a Christmas Eve incident at Thompson’s hospital, where RCMP said a man pointed a rifle at staff and fired a hole in a chapel window.

The government has not yet said if AI detectors will be used in other facilities.

Jason Linklater, president of the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals, echoed the call for enhanced weapon detection.

“MAHCP wants to see evidence-based technology implemented throughout Manitoba health-care facilities, coupled with increased numbers of qualified security personnel able to detect and address security concerns,” he said.

Progressive Conservative health critic Kathleen Cook, who spoke to the Free Press before Asagwara confirmed the launch is a few weeks away, called on the government to bring back the scanners.

Conor Healy, director of government research with IPVM, a U.S.-based security and surveillance research group, said hospitals or other potential clients should attempt to verify manufacturers’ claims, given the allegations against Evolv and research suggesting the technology is not as efficient as claimed.

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“Metal detectors are the surer bet if your goal is ‘we need to keep 100 per cent of weapons out of our building,” he said.

Healy encouraged potential users to be transparent and inform the public why AI detectors are being installed and at what cost, and that they are not perfect.

Jackson said other measures implemented at HSC in recent months, including security upgrades in a staff parkade and the introduction of institutional safety officers, are working well.

Officers were introduced at HSC last year after MNU filed a grievance against Shared Health on behalf of members who were concerned about their safety, following violence and theft at or near the campus. Institutional safety officers began patrolling Brandon’s hospital earlier this month.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca

Chris Kitching
Reporter

Chris Kitching is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He began his newspaper career in 2001, with stops in Winnipeg, Toronto and London, England, along the way. After returning to Winnipeg, he joined the Free Press in 2021, and now covers a little bit of everything for the newspaper. Read more about Chris.

Every piece of reporting Chris produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.