Incident 1250: Alleged False Positive by Omnilert AI Gun Detection System Prompts Police Search at Baltimore County High School

Description: A purportedly AI-powered gun detection system at Kenwood High School in Baltimore County, Maryland, reportedly misidentified a student's empty Doritos bag as a firearm. Armed police reportedly detained and handcuffed the student before determining there was no weapon. The AI system, operated by Omnilert, issued the false alert, leading to public outcry and an official review of school security protocols. Omnilert reportedly expressed regret for the incident.
Editor Notes: See also Incident 1267: Omnilert AI Reportedly Triggered False Gun Alert at Parkville High, Prompting Student Relocation.

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Alleged: Omnilert developed an AI system deployed by Baltimore County Public Schools, which harmed Taki Allen and Kenwood High School students.
Alleged implicated AI systems: Omnilert and AI-enabled video surveillance system for gun detection

Incident Stats

Incident ID
1250
Report Count
3
Incident Date
2025-10-20
Editors
Daniel Atherton
Applied Taxonomies
MIT

MIT Taxonomy Classifications

Machine-Classified
Taxonomy Details

Risk Subdomain

7.3. Lack of capability or robustness

Risk Domain

  1. AI system safety, failures, and limitations

Entity

AI

Timing

Post-deployment

Intent

Unintentional

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A.I. gun detection false alarm at school has Baltimore County leaders calling for review
cbsnews.com · 2025

Baltimore County councilmembers are calling on school officials and police to review an A.I. gun detection system after an alert mistakenly detected that a student had a weapon. 

Omnilert AI Gun Detection System warned school leaders at Ken…

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US student handcuffed after AI system apparently mistook bag of chips for gun
theguardian.com · 2025

An artificial intelligence system (AI) apparently mistook a high school student's bag of Doritos for a firearm and called local police to tell them the pupil was armed.

Taki Allen was sitting with friends on Monday night outside Kenwood hig…

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Student handcuffed after Doritos bag mistaken for a gun by school's AI security system
abc7.com · 2025

Armed police handcuffed and searched a student at a high school in Baltimore County, Maryland, this week after an AI-driven security system flagged the teen's empty bag of chips as a possible firearm.

Baltimore County officials are now call…

Variants

A "variant" is an AI incident similar to a known case—it has the same causes, harms, and AI system. Instead of listing it separately, we group it under the first reported incident. Unlike other incidents, variants do not need to have been reported outside the AIID. Learn more from the research paper.
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