AI Misidentifies Doritos Bag, Bodycam Shows Handcuff

An AI gun-detection system at Kenwood High in Baltimore County mistakenly flagged a crumpled Doritos bag held by 16-year-old Taki Allen as a firearm after football practice, prompting roughly eight police cars to surround him and officers to handcuff and search him before locating the chip bag, according to bodycam footage. Officers and school officials acknowledged the alert was a false positive and Allen was released without charges; he says he was terrified and now avoids going outside after practice. The alert—widely reported as coming from Omnilert’s camera-based system deployed across county high schools—was routed to the school safety team and local police, though some reporting cited ZeroEyes, creating confusion about which vendor produced the alert. School officials say the safety team canceled the alert but the principal did not see the cancellation and the school resource officer still contacted local police, contributing to the armed response. Superintendent Dr. Myriam Rogers defended the technology as designed to trigger human review, while county officials, community leaders and Allen’s family have called for a formal review and greater oversight of real-time AI surveillance in schools.