Mansfield ISD officials are standing by a new artificial intelligence-powered weapon’s detection system despite the technology’s maker facing a pending federal lawsuit for false advertising.
A lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission accuses Evolv of making false claims about the effectiveness of its AI system and its ability to detect weapons and ignore harmless personal items. Mansfield ISD has used Evolv’s system since the start of the 2024-25 school year.
The Evolv Express Weapons Detection System is a walk-through device that scans for illegal items such as guns, explosives and knives. Mansfield ISD requires all campus visitors to go through the systems, which are located at the main entrances.
The detectors are prone to flagging nonharmful items like binders, laptops, umbrellas and eyeglass cases, and students often must empty their bags for screening before entering school.
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The FTC seeks to bar Evolv from making unsupported claims about its products’ ability to detect weapons using artificial intelligence. The settlement could also give certain school districts the option to cancel their contracts, which generally lock customers into multiyear deals.
Mansfield ISD is aware of the FTC lawsuit, which was filed in November 2024, Fortner said. However, administrators “are pleased with the product’s performance and plan to continue using it.”
“Evolv is just one part of our multifaceted safety and security plan in Mansfield ISD,” Fortner said. “Thus far, the Evolv technology has been effective in our environment for identifying weapons of concern.”
See here for the background. A copy of the lawsuit is embedded in the story. As noted before, as far as I know HISD has not kicked the tires on Evolv, though they are currently rolling out a different weapons detection system to their high schools. I’ll be interested to see how this goes, as the pressure being put on schools to beef up security will surely lead to more districts reaching for technologies like this to help them. I’m also curious to see if this lawsuit will even continue in the current environment – it’s my default assumption at this point that anything started under the Biden administration that’s not nailed to the floor will be thrown out by the Musk wrecking crew. But maybe this is far enough down on the list that they don’t get to it in time.