Maryland teen handcuffed after school AI mistakes chip bag for gun
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Police officers surrounded a 16-year-old high school student last week, leaving authorities and students shaken after an artificial intelligence (AI) gun detection system mistakenly flagged a bag of chips as a firearm.
Student Taki Allen put an empty bag of chips in his pocket as he waited for his car at Kenwood High School in Essex, Maryland, last Monday. WMAR-2 News. Moments later, police officers suddenly surrounded him, ordered him to the ground and handcuffed him, the local station reported.
Body camera footage released by the Baltimore Police Department shows responding officers realized the school’s AI security system, which was monitoring real-time video, had mistakenly marked a bag of chips as a weapon, triggering a law enforcement response.
“The police showed up, like eight cop cars, and then they all came out pointing guns at me and telling me to get on the ground. And I put my hands up like, ‘What’s going on?'” Allen told WMAR-2. “I was holding it up in the air as if to say.”
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On October 20, 2025, multiple students were detained at Kenwood High School in Essex, Maryland. (Baltimore Police Department)
Police officers then reviewed the video flagged by the AI system, traced the object to a nearby trash can and discovered that the alleged weapon was just a bag of chips, according to the video.
In the video, a police officer told the students, “I think it’s like you eating chips… He perceived it as a gun.” “AI is not the best.”
The incident on October 20 prompted students, city officials, and school administrators to ask who was responsible for this traumatic event.
During a conference call, Superintendent Dr. Myriam Rogers said the warning was initially rescinded, but the school’s principal began coordinating the police response.
“The alert was rescinded by the BCPS (Baltimore County Public Schools) Safety Team. The principal who did not see the revocation contacted our School Resource Officer,” Baltimore County told Fox News Digital on Sunday, referring to the BCPS statement.
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A bag of chips reportedly triggered a fake gun alarm, prompting police to respond to Kenwood High School in Essex, Maryland, on October 20, 2025. (Baltimore Police Department)
Rogers told WMAR-2 that ultimately the system worked as intended.
“The program relies on human verification, and in this case the program did what it was supposed to do, which was to put out a warning signal and have people take a look to see if there was any cause for concern at that moment,” Rogers said.
Omnilert told Fox News Digital that their system combines both artificial intelligence and human verification before any incidents occur.
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On October 20, 2025, police detained several students waiting to be picked up from Kenwood High School in Essex, Maryland, after the school’s artificial intelligence security system mistook the snack pack for a gun. (Baltimore Police Department)
“Our system worked as designed, detecting a potential threat, escalating it to human review, and relying on authorized security personnel for final detection,” the company told Fox News Digital, adding that the object was later confirmed to be not a firearm and the alert was marked as resolved.
“From that moment on, Omnilert had no involvement in any subsequent actions or decisions regarding this incident.”
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Shaken by the incident, Allen said he no longer felt safe going out after football practice and that the incident should never have happened.
“I don’t think any chip bag should be confused with a gun,” Allen told WMAR-2.
“I don’t think I’m safe enough to go out, especially to eat a bag of chips or have a drink. I’ll stay inside until my car comes,” Allen added.
