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baltimore Police surrounded and handcuffed a high school student after an artificial intelligence tool mistook his bag of Doritos for a weapon.
Takie Allen, 16, was hanging out with his friends after football practice at Kenwood High School Monday night when he was suddenly approached by armed officers.
“It was like eight police cars that were coming 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 said, ‘What?'” Allen told the local outlet. WBAL-TV,
The student described the moment he was handcuffed by police: “They made me kneel down, put my hands behind my back and handcuffed me. Then, they searched me and they found out I didn’t have anything.”
Allen said police found the bag of Doritos he had been eating moments earlier.
“I was just holding a Doritos bag — it had two hands and a finger out, and they said it looked like a gun,” he said.
School Principal Kate Smith said in a letter to parents that school administrators had received an alert that someone may have a weapon on school property.
“I contacted our school resource officer (SRO) and informed them of the matter, and they contacted the local campus for additional assistance,” the principal said.
The Baltimore County Police Department told WBAL-TV officers responded to a report of “a suspicious individual with a weapon” and after searching the individual, “it was determined that the individual did not have any weapons.”
“Nobody wants this to happen to their child,” Allen’s grandfather Lamont Davis told the outlet.
The school’s weapon detection system is from Omnialert, an AI gun detection and emergency response technology company. According to WBAL-TV, the system uses school cameras to identify potential weapons and send alerts to authorities.
An Omnialert spokesperson said the image sent to their team on Monday night closely resembled a gun.
“It was verified and within seconds it was sent to the Baltimore County Public Schools safety team for their evaluation,” the spokesperson said. cbs news baltimore“Within moments, the incident was marked as resolved in our systems.
“OmniAlert’s involvement ended at that point, and the system operated as designed – detecting a potential threat, routing it for human review, and ensuring rapid, informed decision-making.”
Independent Omnilert has been contacted for further comment.
“We understand how distressing this was for the individual who was searched as well as for other students who witnessed the incident,” Smith said. “Our counselors will provide direct support to students who were involved in this incident and are also available to speak to any students who may need assistance.”
Local officials are calling on Baltimore County Public Schools Superintendent Myriam Rogers and police to review the Omnialert system.
“Thank God it wasn’t that bad,” Baltimore County Councilman Julian Jones told CBS News Baltimore. “How come we had police officers with guns coming at a kid because of a bag of Doritos?”
Rogers has defended the AI gun detection system, telling the public, “The program did what it was supposed to do, which was to signal a warning and let humans look to figure out if there was cause for concern at that time.”
OmniAlert came into focus in January when its system failed to detect the gun used in the shooting at Antioch High School in Nashville. A 16-year-old girl died and another was injuredAccording to officials.
Metro Nashville Public Schools spokesman Sean Brasted said at the time that the issue was “the shooter’s location close to the cameras was not close enough to get an accurate reading and activate the alarm.” nbc news,
