Charles County’s top school security official is facing fresh ethics questions after an I-Team investigation highlighted ties between a school-safety nonprofit and the company behind the district’s AI gun-detection system. The scrutiny lands just as district leaders are asking for more taxpayer money to expand that very technology, following a string of gun incidents at a local high school.
In early May, Superintendent Maria Navarro asked county commissioners for $300,000 for a mobile weapons-detection system, $80,000 to expand the district’s AI weapons-detection platform and $50,000 for a community and student pilot, according to WJLA. The request came on the heels of back-to-back handgun recoveries at St. Charles High School in late April, which triggered an early dismissal and a full facility sweep, Fox5 DC reported.
How the District Rolled Out the AI System
Charles County began installing Omnilert’s Gun Detect software in 2023 and has said it plans to switch the system on districtwide, turning exterior cameras into what it describes as a proactive weapons-detection layer, according to Omnilert. The company says the AI spots possible guns in camera feeds, then sends the images to humans for verification and can launch automated emergency responses if a weapon is confirmed.
Nonprofit Connections and Paid Travel
The I-Team reports that Jason Stoddard, the district’s director of school safety and security, was invited to a February 2024 panel hosted by the nonprofit ZeroNow and that the group picked up roughly $1,000 in travel and hotel costs for the trip, according to WJLA. ZeroNow’s president, Ara Bagdasarian, is also listed as a co-founder and top executive at Omnilert, and tax records reviewed by the I-Team show Stoddard does not receive a salary from the nonprofit.
“There certainly could be conflict of interest questions raised,” security consultant Ken Trump told the I-Team, warning that vendor ties woven through nonprofits can blur the lines on procurement ethics and public trust.
Accuracy Concerns and Legal Fights
Omnilert’s technology has already drawn national attention, and not always the kind companies like to tout in marketing decks. In October 2025, a Baltimore County deployment of the system flagged a bag of chips as a handgun, triggering an armed police response and a wave of community anger, CBS Baltimore reported.
More recently, a survivor of a January 2025 school shooting in the Nashville area filed a lawsuit claiming the software failed to detect the shooter’s weapon, according to reporting by Ars Technica and local coverage in Nashville. Together, those high-profile episodes have helped fuel a broader national debate over how much schools should lean on AI systems to back up human monitoring.
What It Means for Charles County
The revelations about Stoddard’s ties and travel benefits are adding tension to the superintendent’s funding push and putting a spotlight on how the district handles gifts, outside affiliations and vendor access. The National Council of School Safety Directors, which Stoddard chairs and which grew out of ZeroNow, lists industry partners and maintains close relationships with vendors, The BayNet reported.
State rules on gifts and ethics are a patchwork, but watchdogs say transparency and clear firewalls in purchasing are the usual tools to avoid conflicts, according to state gift-law guidance compiled by the National Association of Attorneys General.
For now, Charles County sits in an uncomfortable spotlight as both an early adopter of AI gun-detection systems and a case study in the thorny governance questions they raise. As the debate plays out, school leaders, county officials and parents are likely to push for stricter disclosure rules and more robust procurement safeguards before signing off on more high-tech security.
