False alarms, cost with AI weapons detection system in schools has city leaders concerned

Baltimore City Schools' AI weapons detection system, which monitors what students bring into school, is causing concern for city leaders due to false alarms and its cost.

On Tuesday, the city's Public Safety Committee heard from school officials about its use inside schools.

The system, Evolv, is installed in 27 city high schools. The Baltimore City School Board approved more than $5 million to install the system.

"It seems to be serving as a deterrent in our schools where, again, we're not identifying a lot of weapons coming in," said Baltimore City Schools Chief of Staff Allison Perkins-Cohen.

School leaders said across the 27 schools, the system processes 14,000 morning entries each day. Roughly 30% of entries trigger alerts. Nearly all are items, like laptops, cans, and drink containers.

The school system said no weapons were detected last school year. However, during this school year, scanners detected one BB gun.

City questions AI system

Councilman Mark Conway, the chair of the committee, called this meeting following nationwide concerns and errors by Evolv.

Conway referenced a settlement from the FTC alleging Evolv scanners "failed in several instances to detect weapons in schools while flagging harmless personal items typically brought to schools, like laptops, binders, and water bottles."

"We are thinking about all the components of its efficacy and it's ability to do what it actually says it can do, especially in a public safety perspective where there's a prospect of missing a weapon or over filtering for weapons," Conway said.

The Public Safety Committee also questioned if the school system spent too much money for the weapons detection system citing City Schools doesn't use all the AI capabilities Evolv has to offer.

However, school leaders said Evolv advertised all of its features. The district chose to opt out of features like facial recognition.

 "We don't want to focus on our students becoming the subject of anybody's surveillance," Perkins-Cohen said. "We really wanted to look at weapons and if there are weapons coming to our school."

The committee plans to review the contract between the district and Evolv as they continue to address their concerns. City Schools confirmed this was a sole-source contract with Evolv.

"We understand public safety is one of the major issues that students are bringing up," said Councilwoman Phylicia Porter. "So, I would implore Baltimore City Schools system when they are talking about this technology used within our schools, they are using it in plain language."

False alarm in Baltimore

In October 2025, the AI detection system mistakenly detected a student with a weapon at a Baltimore school

The system alerted school leaders that a student had a gun at Kenwood High School. However, it was determined that the student had a chip bag.

The false alarm caused city leaders to call for a review.