HOUSE BILL 295

56th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2023

INTRODUCED BY

Greg Nibert

 

 

 

 

 

AN ACT

MAKING AN APPROPRIATION TO THE PUBLIC EDUCATION DEPARTMENT TO FUND SOFTWARE FOR DETECTING FIREARMS ON SCHOOL PROPERTY.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

     SECTION 1. APPROPRIATION.--

          A. Two million five hundred thousand dollars ($2,500,000) is appropriated from the general fund to the public education department for expenditure in fiscal years 2024 through 2026 to fund a school security pilot project in southeast New Mexico, to include Chaves county, Curry county, De Baca county, Eddy county, Guadalupe county, Lea county, Lincoln county, Otero county, Quay county and Roosevelt county. The public education department shall contract with a private entity for software that detects the presence of visible firearms on school property and alerts school personnel and first responders of that presence. The contract shall require that the software be:

                (1) developed in the United States without the use of any third-party or open-source data;

                (2) patented by the United States patent and trademark office and include a training database that is populated with frames of actual videos of firearms detected in relevant environments across diverse industries;

                (3) designated as qualified anti-terrorism technology pursuant to the federal SAFETY Act, 6 U.S.C. Section 441 et seq.;

                (4) designed to integrate with existing security camera infrastructure at schools; and

                (5) managed directly by the contracted entity through an operations center that operates twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, three hundred sixty-five days a year, and that is staffed by highly trained analysts in order to rapidly communicate potential threats to end users.

          B. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2026 shall revert to the general fund.

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