Armed police swarm student after AI mistakes bag of Doritos for a weapon

Concerns over AI surveillance in schools are intensifying after armed officers swarmed a 16-year-old student outside Kenwood High School in Baltimore when an AI gun detection system falsely flagged a Doritos bag as a firearm.

Taki Allen was hanging out with friends after football practice on October 20 when multiple police cars suddenly pulled up.

“It was like eight cop cars that came pulling up for us,” Allen told WBAL-TV 11 News. “They started walking toward me with guns, talking about ‘Get on the ground,’ and I was like, ‘What?’”

“They made me get on my knees, put my hands behind my back, and cuff me. Then they searched me and found nothing,” he said.

Allen was handcuffed at gunpoint. Police later showed him the AI-captured image that triggered the alert. The crumpled Doritos bag in his pocket had been mistaken for a gun.

“It was mainly like, am I gonna die? Are they going to kill me? “They showed me the picture, said that looks like a gun, I said, ‘no, it’s chips.’”

Fox/screenshot

Taki Allen doesn’t want to return to school after the incident.

Student afraid to return to school after AI sends police after him

The AI system behind the incident is part of Omnilert’s gun detection technology, introduced in Baltimore County Public Schools last year. It scans existing surveillance footage and alerts police in real time when it detects what it believes to be a weapon.

Omnilert later admitted the incident was a “false positive” but claimed the system “functioned as intended,” saying its purpose is to “prioritize safety and awareness through rapid human verification.”

Baltimore County Public Schools echoed the company’s statement in a letter to parents, offering counseling services to students impacted by the incident.

Omnilert

Omnilert says it “delivers instant gun detection” and “near-zero false positives.”

“We understand how upsetting this was for the individual that was searched as well as the other students who witnessed the incident,” the principal wrote. “Our counselors will provide direct support to the students who were involved.”

Allen says no one from the school has reached out to him personally.

“They didn’t apologize. They just told me it was protocol,” he said. “I was expecting at least somebody to talk to me about it.”

The teen now says he no longer feels safe going to school.

“If I eat another bag of chips or drink something, I feel like they’re going to come again,” Allen said.

The case has sparked fresh debate over the reliability of AI surveillance tools and their real-world consequences, especially in schools.

This incident comes as more institutions implement AI technology. Earlier this month, Major General William ‘Hank’ Taylor, one of the top officers in the US Army, admitted to using ChatGPT to make key military decisions.

Meanwhile, the UK introduced strict age verification measures for mature content, requiring users to pass a facial scan to prove they’re over 18. This has left some adults unable to access content, such as Britain’s most tattooed man, who said the age check system told him to “remove his face” because it interpreted his tattoos as a mask.