An AI security platform that recently mistook a bag of Doritos for a firearm has triggered another false alarm, forcing police to sweep a Baltimore County high school.
On November 7, officers responded to Parkville High School after Omnilert, the district’s AI gun-detection system, flagged what it believed was a weapon on campus. Police arrived around 5 p.m. and relocated students while crews searched the building.
According to Baltimore County Police, no threat was found.
Parkville Principal Maureen Astarita told families that police ordered the precautionary sweep “out of an abundance of caution,” adding that students were quickly moved to a safe location while officers cleared the school.
AI security system keeps triggering false alarms
The incident comes only weeks after Omnilert falsely identified a 16-year-old Kenwood High School student’s Doritos bag as a gun, leading armed officers to swarm him outside the building.
The company later admitted that alert was a “false positive” but insisted the system still “functioned as intended,” arguing that its role is to quickly escalate cases for human review.
Omnilert’s gun-detection software was rolled out across Baltimore County Public Schools last year. It scans surveillance feeds and notifies police if it detects what it believes may be a weapon.
While no student encountered armed officers this time, the back-to-back false alarms are raising new concerns about AI-driven security on school grounds. After the Doritos scare, district officials pledged more human oversight and annual protocol training to ensure police aren’t deployed before a report is verified.
That renewed scrutiny is likely to intensify as Omnilert alerts continue to send Baltimore schools into emergency mode.
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