Overview
- Kenwood High student Taki Allen was handcuffed at gunpoint on Oct. 20 after an AI system mistook his crumpled Doritos bag for a firearm, and no weapon was found.
- Baltimore County Public Schools’ security team reviewed the Omnilert alert and marked it cleared, but the principal, unaware of the cancellation, notified the school resource officer, prompting a police response.
- Superintendent Myriam Rogers defended the deployment, saying the system requires human verification and worked as designed, while Omnilert labeled the incident a false positive and said it will review what happened.
- County councilmembers Julian E. Jones Jr. and Izzy Patoka called for formal reviews of procedures and safeguards governing the AI gun-detection system.
- BCPS maintains a three-year, $2.6 million Omnilert contract through 2027, and the student’s family reports ongoing trauma and minimal personal outreach as the school offers counseling to those affected.