In the 2022–23 school year news reports nationwide identified more than 1,150 guns brought to K-12 campuses that were seized before anyone fired them. That averages out to more than six guns per day, according to an investigation by The Washington Post.
On top of that, one in 47 school-age children attended a school where at least one firearm was seized and reported on by the media in that same school year. Here in North Texas, Arlington ISD found only one gun on its campuses in the 2018–19 year, but during the 2022–23 fall and spring semesters, 19 guns were found in the district, according to the Post report.
Such a drastic increase is why some school districts, including those in Forney, Mansfield and McKinney, are turning to new tech to ensure weapons aren’t turning up on campus. The problem is, it doesn’t always work and could lead some to let their guard down.
In the coming weeks, McKinney ISD students at five campuses will find themselves walking through weapons detection systems when they enter school. The district’s board of trustees paid $1.27 million to purchase the system from a company called Evolv, which doesn’t have the best track record.
The company’s tech is used in museums, theme parks, stadiums and schools. It resembles the metal detectors you might see when walking into a court building or police station, for example. But they’re different. Instead of just sounding an alarm any time metal is detected, Evolv uses artificial intelligence to specifically look for weapons like guns and knives. This way individuals don’t have to empty their pockets or remove personal belongings. People pass through sensors and are flagged if the sensors detect weapons or weapon-like materials. A flagged person is directed to a staff member who will check their belongings. Once cleared, they’re free to proceed.
McKinney ISD didn’t respond to requests for comment. But according to Community Impact, Russel May, senior director of safety and security for the district, said, “The purchase is not in response to a specific threat or weapon problem within our schools but rather a proactive measure to keep McKinney on the forefront of safety and security initiatives.”
Checks through Evolv are supposed to be quick, easy and accurate. The company claims it has the ability to scan a thousand students in 15 minutes. But at times it can be slow and difficult to manage, and can produce false alarms. The problems with Evolv are detailed in a 2023 article by the online news site The Intercept.
In Maryland’s Dorchester County Public Schools, there were 250 false alarms for every weapon accurately detected from September 2021 to June 2022, according to The Intercept report. In the Hemet Unified School District in California, there were more false alarms, slowing foot traffic on campuses. Evolv’s solution? Let the students proceed.
It also came out in 2022 that the company had doctored results of their software testing. Its systems were failing to detect knives and handguns, and it misrepresented these failures in public reports. Law firms also announced investigations into the company to search for possible violations of securities laws, according to The Intercept. This included misrepresentations of the technology and its capabilities.
I found this in the Dispatches from Dallas from August 9. This totally sounds like the sort of new technology that makes a lot of promises related to crime prevention and public safety that it can’t quite keep (*cough* *cough* ShotSpotter *cough* *cough*), and as such I wondered if it had wormed its way into the Houston area. I didn’t find any evidence of it in local school systems, though it is apparently used by the Rockets and (per this WFAA story) the Astros. We passed through it on our way into the Cyndi Lauper concert at the Toyota Center on Saturday; my wife wound up having to go through a more traditional metal detector and then got wanded, apparently because of the necklace she was wearing. Not sure that was its best showing, but whatever. Be that as it may, it’s not hard to imagine it getting its tires kicked by one or more of the area ISDs.
While this technology is not perhaps mature yet, I don’t think it’s doomed to forever fail. With enough data, its algorithms ought to improve. That’s been the trajectory in the cybersecurity space, where earlier systems to detect potential threats were extremely noisy and generated a ton of mostly false-positive alerts that ultimately weren’t really worth investigating. But with time and a metric crap-ton of more data to analyze, those systems are much more accurate and useful. I would expect systems like Evolv to get there as well, though at what pace I couldn’t say. I would not advise any ISD to pay for the privilege of helping them improve their detection capabilities. If your ISD puts this on their next board agenda, I’d suggest you show up and ask a lot of questions.