Body camera footage from Baltimore County Police shows the tension-filled moments when officers surrounded a Kenwood High School student over an A.I. gun detection system error. The system, according to CBS News, misidentified a bag of Doritos chips as a firearm, prompting an immediate response from law enforcement.
On Monday evening, officers descended upon the student, Taki Allen, who had been enjoying time with his friends after football practice. Mistakenly flagged as armed, Allen was approached by officers with guns drawn. In body camera footage released by the Baltimore Police, one officer can be heard asking Allen, "You got a gun on you?" to which the bewildered Allen responded, "No, what?" Following a search that confirmed the absence of a weapon, the officer explained, "The cameras around the system that pick up on things that look like guns, I guess just the way you guys were eating chips, Doritos, whatever, it picked it up as a gun. That's all." This was detailed in a FOX Baltimore report.
Omnilert, the security company responsible for the A.I. system in question, referred to the incident as a "false positive." Despite the mistake, the company stated that the system "functioned as intended: to prioritize safety and awareness through rapid human verification," according to an official statement, detailed by FOX Baltimore. Moreover, the Baltimore County Public Schools and the Department of School Safety and Security promptly reviewed and canceled the initial alert, attempting to de-escalate the situation as quickly as possible.
