By Andrea Stevens
AFRO Staff Writer
astevens@afro.com
Baltimore County Public Schools says it will retrain staff, following the Oct. 20 incident involving an artificial intelligence surveillance system that misidentified a Doritos bag as a gun. Though the alert was ultimately called off, the school’s principal alerted a resource officer, who called the Baltimore County Police Department, leading a student to be handcuffed at gunpoint.
BCPS released a joint statement, along with Baltimore County Police Department and Baltimore County Councilman Julian Jones (D-District 4) on Oct. 28.
“To protect our community, the school system employs a layered approach to security that includes clear student expectations, student safety assistants, safety managers, School Resource Officers (SRO), cameras, security vestibules, Open Gate and Omnilert weapons detection systems, and comprehensive training,” read the statement. “Baltimore County Public Schools and the Baltimore County Police Department have reviewed the school response and the police response to the incident at Kenwood High School on Monday, October 20, 2025, and are committed to taking additional steps to ensure all staff fully understand and follow established protocols to prevent such incidents from occurring again. BCPS will continue to provide ongoing counseling and emotional support to students impacted by this event.”
In the statement, Councilman Jones Jr. praised both BCPS and BCPD.
“I commend the Baltimore County Police Department and the Public School System for their responsiveness after my request for a thorough review of the technology and processes behind the AI-guided camera warning system involved at Kenwood High School,” Jones said. “Both agencies confirmed that they conduct incident reviews as part of their regular practice, examined with me all aspects of this troubling incident, and shared examples where the Omnilert system captured valuable information that helped prevent bad outcomes. We agree on the need for annual retraining to ensure that dedicated staff follow appropriate existing protocols and we will all remain vigilant about how our technology is functioning.”
Omnilert, introduced in 2023 and installed districtwide in 2024, is a weapons detection system that uses more than 7,000 cameras to identify potential threats. When the system detects an object resembling a firearm, it generates an alert reviewed by trained BCPS safety staff. If confirmed, police are notified for response; if dismissed, no further action is supposed to be taken. Notifications are shared with administrators for awareness only.