Sarasota County Fair To Use New Technology To Screen For Guns After Last Year’s Shooting

SARASOTA, FL — After a shooting at the Sarasota County Fair in March injured an 18-year-old man, the Sarasota County Agricultural Fair Association is bringing in new technology to screen attendees for weapons at next year’s event.

The association is partnering with Evolv Technology to improve security by using Evolv Express, a weapons screening solution, during the upcoming 10-day event in March 2022, Evolv said in a news release.

At the fair held earlier this year, 15-year-old Ansel L. Acosta was charged with three felonies — aggravated battery with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, culpable negligence and brandishing a firearm in public — after shooting a fairgoer, who he knew previously, just after 10 p.m. March 20. The shooting escalated from a verbal argument between two groups attending the fair.

As a result of the partnership, the association will eliminate crowded security lines at entrances and reallocate security staff previously responsible for metal detector wand searches.

Related Story: 15-Year-Old Faces Felony Charges In Sarasota County Fair Shooting

“Unlike manual checkpoints where fatigue begins to set in on security staff, Evolv Express delivers the same level of results—whether in the first 30 minutes or 10 hours later,” Rory S. Martin, president and CEO, Sarasota County Agricultural Fair Association said in a statement. “Sustaining consistent results through peaks and valleys is really important when checking for weapons. There cannot be a dip in effectiveness.”

Evolv Express uses artificial intelligence weapons detection algorithms to instantly detect and identify a person carrying a weapon without slowing the flow of visitors carrying their personal items, improving security at the speed and scale required to stay ahead of today’s threats, the company said. This reduces unsafe crowding, lowers the risk for human error and removes the tradeoff between keeping a venue safe and providing a good experience for visitors, it added.

Evolv’s systems have been used to screen more than 100 million people in the U.S., second only to the Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration. Venues and companies that have partnered with Evolv include Uber, Lincoln Center, L.L. Bean and Six Flags.

“Protecting the safety of the attendees at nonprofit events like the fair is critically important. Traditional security screening approaches degrade visitor experience and struggle to deliver consistent scanned results,” Peter George, Evolv CEO, said.