Maryland High School Student Handcuffed After AI Mistakenly Identifies Doritos as Gun
A 16-year-old student from Kenwood High School in Essex, Maryland, was handcuffed at gunpoint by police after an artificial intelligence (AI) system misidentified a bag of Doritos as a firearm. The incident has sparked concerns about the accuracy and implications of AI-based security systems in schools.
Taki Allen, the student involved, was waiting to be picked up from football practice when he said that police approached him with guns drawn and ordered him to get on the ground. “At first, I didn’t know where they [were] going until they started walking towards me with guns talking about ‘Get on the ground!’” Allen told WBAL. “I was like, ‘What?’”
Body camera footage obtained by WJZ showed police detaining Allen and a group of his friends around 7pm on Monday. A police officer asked Allen if he had a weapon, saying, “Do you have a gun on you? Do you have anything blue that looks like a gun?” However, Allen never had a weapon. What he had was a crumpled-up bag of Doritos that he was holding up with two hands and one finger out.
The footage continued with officers rummaging through a school trashcan and finding exactly that. A police officer offered Allen an explanation: “So basically, the cameras around the system, they pick up on things that look like guns. I guess just the way you guys were eating chips, Doritos or whatever, it picked it up as a gun – that’s all.”
Allen described the situation as “scary” and said he had never been through anything like that before. He explained, “They made me get on my knees and then put my hands behind my back and cuffed me. Then, they searched me and then he figured out I didn’t have [anything].”
AI Gun Detection System in Use
Baltimore County schools started using an AI gun detection system in 2023. The system uses existing school cameras to identify people and nearby objects. If a gun is detected, an alarm is promptly sent out to school officials and police.
The system is made by Virginia-based Omnilert, which claims to be the leading provider of “AI gun detection technology,” and is SAFETY Act-approved. Myriam Rogers, Baltimore County public schools superintendent, said, “In this case, the program did what it was supposed to do – which was to signal an alert for humans to take a look if there was cause for concern in that moment.”
Kenwood High School said administration had received an alert saying someone on school grounds “may have been in possession of a weapon.” In an email to parents, the school stated, “The Department of School Safety and Security quickly reviewed and canceled the initial alert after confirming there was no weapon. I contacted our school resource officer (SRO) and reported the matter to him, and he contacted the local precinct for additional support. Police officers responded to the school, searched the individual and quickly confirmed that they were not in possession of any weapons.”
Response from the School and Family
The school said counselors would provide “direct support” to the students involved, but Allen said no one had actually contacted him. He said, “They didn’t apologize. They just told me it was protocol. I was expecting at least somebody to talk to me about it.”
The anger extended to the teenager’s family, who said the event could have ended up much worse. Lamont Davis, his grandfather, said to WBFF, “God forbid, my grandson could be dead if he flinched or twitched.”
The incident left the 16-year-old shaken and fearing for his future at the school. Allen said, “I don’t feel like going out there anymore. If I eat another bag of chips or drink something, I feel like they’re going to come again.”
Company Response and Calls for Review
Omnilert said it regretted the incident, calling it a “false positive” but added that its gun detection technology “functioned as intended: to prioritize safety and awareness through rapid human verification.”
In February, Omnilert’s AI identification system failed to prevent a shooting at Antioch High School in Nashville, Tennessee, that killed a 16-year-old girl. CEO Dave Fraser told CNN that his company’s gun detection software was “relatively new” and did not “work perfectly all the time.”
Baltimore County councilman Izzy Patoka called on Baltimore County’s public schools to review the gun detection system. He said, “No child in our school system should be accosted by police for eating a bag of Doritos.”
The Daily Mail reached out to Omnilert for comment.
