Police officers drew their guns and handcuffed a student at a Baltimore high school after an artificial intelligence gun detection system mistakenly identified his bag of crisps as a weapon.
The incident occurred Monday evening at Kenwood High School after student Taki Allen finished football practice, reports WBAL-TV 11 News.
Allen told the station that police arrived approximately 20 minutes after he sat down with friends. “It was like eight cop cars that came pulling up 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 was like, ‘What?'” Allen told WBAL-TV 11 News.
“They made me get on my knees, put my hands behind my back, and cuffed me. Then, they searched me and they figured out I had nothing,” Allen told WBAL-TV 11 News. “Then, they went over to where I was standing and found a bag of chips on the floor.”
Bag “looked like a gun”
Police reportedly informed Allen that the AI detector flagged him after he crumpled the Doritos bag. “I was just holding a Doritos bag — it was two hands and one finger out, and they said it looked like a gun,” Allen told WBAL-TV 11 News.
Baltimore County high schools began using the gun detection system last year. The system, which WBAL-TV 11 News identified as being from the company Omnilert, utilises existing school cameras to identify possible weapons and alert law enforcement.
County police confirmed to WBAL-TV 11 News that officers responded at approximately 7:20 p.m. to a report of a “suspicious person with a weapon” and determined the subject was not armed. Omnilert told the station that it does not comment on internal school procedures.
In a letter to parents, the school’s principal stated that administration received an alert at 7 p.m. and that the Department of School Safety and Security “quickly reviewed and canceled the initial alert after confirming there was no weapon.”. The principal added that the school resource officer nonetheless contacted the local precinct for “additional support,” leading to the police response.
