Baltimore City Schools says AI weapons detection technology only used at school entrances

BALTIMORE (WBFF) — An AI system being used inside Baltimore City public high schools was the topic of the Baltimore City Council Public Safety Committee hearing on Tuesday.

According to Baltimore City Public Schools, the technology known as Evolv is a $5.5 million, four-year contract used to detect concealed weapons with the goal of enhancing safety and efficiency.

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City Schools members who presented to members of the subcommittee said the facial recognition components of the AI software is not used inside City Schools, and the weapons detection is only used at school entrances, and not to monitor hallways and classrooms.

According to the school district, there are currently 53 systems across 27 high schools.

In a pilot program, the systems processed about 14,000 entries each morning across the schools, with about 30% triggering alerts.

According to the school district, the majority of those alerts were benign items like a glasses case, a laptop or a water bottle container.

During last school year, the technology did not detect any guns, and so far this year one BB gun has been detected, school members said.

Baltimore City Councilman Mark Conway, who chairs the public safety committee, questioned school members about the cost of the technology.

“The system is supposed to have the ability to detect weapons and use AI to determine what type of weapon,” Conway explained. “Baltimore City is not using it in that way rather whether there are certain weapons/devices on a person’s body. The system claimed it has an ability to do more than what the city school system is using it for. I think we have redundancy in the system that makes me feel confident its safe. Whether or not we overspent for a system that is slightly more sophisticated metal detection system. Evolv claimed they had an ability to use AI to detect different weapons, such as a knife, or a BB gun. We’re not using it that way in City Schools, but Evolv said they could do that. The FTC determined they couldn’t do that. They were under investigation. Baltimore City Schools tested the pilot and purchased the contract before the FTC report. I think the question here is did we end up paying for something we thought could do something far more sophisticated than we thought it had the ability to do?”