The Baltimore Police Department released body camera footage Saturday showing a 16-year-old student being detained after an A.I. gun detection system mistakenly identified his bag of chips as a firearm.
The system, developed by security company Omnilert, triggered the response Monday around 7:20 p.m., when officers from Precinct 11-Essex were dispatched to Kenwood High School for a report of a suspicious person with a weapon.
Taki Allen was sitting with friends after football practice when armed officers surrounded him.
Body camera footage from 7:25 p.m. on October 20 shows an officer asking Allen, “You got a gun on you?” He replied, “No, what?” Officers then asked if he had anything blue on him like a phone. Allen responded that only his shoes were blue.
Allen was searched, and officers confirmed he was not carrying any weapons.
“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,” one officer said. Allen was then released.
The Omnilert software, introduced last year, scans school surveillance cameras for potential weapons and alerts law enforcement in real time. In a statement, the company acknowledged the image “closely resembled a gun being held,” calling it a “false positive” while defending the system’s response, noting it “prioritized safety through rapid human verification.”
Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS) sent a letter to parents reinforcing Omnilert’s statement and confirming counseling services would be available for students affected.
“In that moment, I didn’t feel safe. I didn’t feel like the school actually cared about me because nobody came up to me after, not even the principal,” Allen told FOX45 News.
BPD stated the officers responded appropriately and proportionally based on the information available. The alert was safely resolved once it was confirmed there was no threat. BCPS explained the chain of events: the alert was canceled by the Safety Team, but the principal, unaware of the cancellation, contacted the School Resource Officer, who then called officers at the Essex Precinct.
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