A Baltimore County high school student was handcuffed by law enforcement after his school’s artificial intelligence detector mistook his bag of chips for a gun. Police officers who responded to the scene rapidly canceled the alert while council members are now calling for a review of the AI system.
The student was handcuffed and searched before the alert was lifted
Taki Allen, a student at Kenwood High School, was sitting with friends after football practice on the evening of Oct. 20. At around 7:20 p.m., police officers showed up with guns and walked up towards Allen.
“It was like eight cop cars that came pulling up for us. At first, I didn’t know where they were going until they started walking toward me with guns, talking about, ‘Get on the ground,’ and I was like, ‘What?’” the student said in an interview with WBAL-TV 11 News.
“They made me get on my knees, put my hands behind my back, and cuffed me. Then, they searched me and they figured out I had nothing,” Allen added. “Then, they went over to where I was standing and found a bag of chips on the floor.”
He was told the AI detector had mistaken his bag of chips for a gun after he had crumpled it and placed it in his pocket.
“I was just holding a Doritos bag — it was two hands and one finger out, and they said it looked like a gun,” Allen said.
After the incident, the school’s principal notified parents and said counselors are available to support students involved or in need.
“We understand how upsetting this was for the individual that was searched as well as the other students who witnessed the incident,” the principal wrote in a letter. “Please know that ensuring the safety of our students and school community is one of our highest priorities. We work closely with Baltimore County police to ensure that we can promptly respond to any potential safety concerns, and it is essential that we all work together to maintain a safe and welcoming environment for all Kenwood High School students and staff.”
Council members are calling for a review of the AI system used at Baltimore County high schools and across the country
Omnilert AI Gun Detection System was installed at Baltimore County Public Schools in 2023. It helps detect potential weapons by using the school’s existing cameras. After a possible weapon is identified, the software alerts the school safety team and law enforcement.
“The program did what it was supposed to do, which was to signal an alert and for humans to take a look to find out if there was cause for concern at that moment,” superintendent Dr. Myriam Rogers said, according to CBS News.
Rogers added that the system works as a multi-step process. It sends an alert after detection, which is reviewed by human staff.
“This system is AI, and it’s looking for certain elements, and then humans have to verify them,” she added.
Several members of the community have expressed concerns regarding the technology following the incident.
“Nobody wants this to happen to their child. No one wants this to happen,” Allen’s grandfather Lamont Davis said, according to WBAL-TV 11 News.
“AI is not the best,” one of the officers who responded to the scene was heard saying on bodycam footage, per CBS News.
Baltimore County councilman Julian Jones highlighted that the incident could have escalated to a more serious situation.
“Thank God it was not worse,” he said. “How did it come to be that we had police officers with guns drawn approaching a kid because of a bag of Doritos?”
Both Jones and his fellow council member, Izzy Patoka, are calling police to review Omnilert at schools that use the technology across the country. In January 2025, the AI software failed to detect a hidden gun before a mass shooting that occurred at Antioch High School in Nashville, Tennessee.
“Each situation is unique,” an Omnilert spokesperson said in a statement. “In the Nashville case, the gun was not visible to the camera and therefore not detectable by any vision-based system.”
“Our technology can only identify what the camera sees, and we emphasize that AI gun detection is one layer of a comprehensive security strategy that always includes human oversight and other safeguards,” they added.
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