Revisiting Evolv

Evolv, the company behind the weapons detection system at Ballard, likely seemed like a noble attempt to curb gun violence when it first came across JCPS’s desk more than a year ago. However, Evolv has now been proven to be little more than a $17 million scam. With the additional hassle the weapons detection system adds to mornings at Ballard, this past year has proved frustrating for many students and staff. But beyond mere frustration, this past year has also been one of scandal, controversy, and legal troubles for the company Evolv.

Inaccuracy

The company Evolv was controversial even before the detectors were first installed at Ballard. The most glaring issue involves the fact that Evolv’s weapons detectors have been repeatedly accused of being unreliable at detecting weapons.

Evolv has proved to be particularly unreliable when it comes to detecting knives. In 2022, a student was stabbed multiple times with a knife by a classmate at Proctor High School in Utica, New York. Earlier that day, the student walked through Evolv metal detectors, and no alerts went off. Evolv detectors failed to detect a hunting knife that the student had in their backpack.

Unfortunately, this was not the last knife incident that made it past Evolv detectors. A similar situation occurred last year in Columbus, Ohio when a student was attacked with a knife at Mifflin High School, where Evolv detectors had recently been installed. Reporters in Columbus concluded that “it is not clear how the knife entered the school” despite the Evolv detectors.

Not only does Evolv fail to detect certain weapons, but it also consistently mistakes common items for weapons. When the detectors were first introduced at Ballard last year, students were told that they only needed to take out items that fit into their acronym BLUE: binders, laptops, umbrellas, and eyeglasses cases. But, this has proven to be far from the truth. In reality, the detectors mistake countless other common school supplies for weapons.

Among the items that Evolv mistakes for weapons include spiral notebooks, water bottles, eyelash curlers, silverware, charging blocks, calculators, instrument cases, and even certain-shaped pencil cases.

This long list is more than just an inconvenience. Rather, it makes it easier for people to get weapons past Evolv. Many of these items that students are expected to take out of their backpacks and not bring through the detectors can easily hide weapons. For example, knives and guns can be shoved inside water bottles, instrument cases, and even between binders, all items that are simply passed around tables and not given a second thought. But, given the vast amount of items required to be taken out of bags and passed around the detectors, staff can do no more than glance at potentially hidden items. In order to make up for Evolv’s inaccuracy, Ballard’s staff would have to take on the burden of becoming manual weapons detectors and hand-search almost every single item, a task that staff simply does not have time to do.

Ironically, Evolv’s ability to differentiate between everyday items and weapons is a large selling point and something that Evolv uses to set themselves apart from other weapons detection options.

In fact, Evolv has been adamant that their product is a weapons detector, not a metal detector. Evolv often compares their detectors to metal detectors, boasting that unlike metal detectors, Evolv detectors do not require students to take common items out of their bags. In a testimonial posted to Evolv’s YouTube channel, a client complains that with metal detectors, “it was so time consuming having to do one kid at a time, and they were so sensitive that literally a kid’s necklace could set off the metal detector”. Evolv claims to be a solution to these complaints.

According to Evolv, whereas metal detectors will create long lines and slow down students entering the school, with Evolv detectors, “you can walk through with your cell phone, wallet, jewelry, and many other everyday items. This can speed up the ingress process for visitors.”

However, in the year that Evolv detectors have been installed at Ballard, the detectors have created the exact frustrations that Evolv claims to eliminate by not being a metal detector. Students are consistently flagged for having everyday items in their backpacks, and long lines to get searched overwhelm staff and slow down the process of students entering the building.

To the discomfort of many teachers, students, and parents, JCPS has predicted it will spend $17 million to install and upkeep this “state-of-the-art technology” over the next five years.

Despite obvious shortcomings, it is also noteworthy that Evolv was successfully able to detect a gun at Fern Creek High School in early November. Evolv flagged the student’s backpack, allowing the firearm to be found and the student to be arrested. While this may not fully compensate for Evolv’s failures, it does offer some reassurance that schools may be somewhat safer due to Evolv detectors.

Failed NYC Subway Pilot

This past summer, New York City’s subway system put Evolv detectors in 20 subway stations as part of a pilot program. This pilot, however, was largely a failure, as the detectors were concluded to be inaccurate.

Around 3,000 people went through Evolv detectors over the month-long course of the pilot. 118 people, about 5%, were flagged for weapons that turned out to be false alarms. No guns were detected, but 12 knives were successfully detected. However, no arrests were made, implying that these knives were legal.

These statistics seem to have been more than enough for New York City authorities to conclude that Evolv was inaccurate at detecting weapons. The detectors simply led to too many false alarms and did not detect enough weapons. The Legal Aid Society in New York has said that they “hope that this ill-conceived, fraught, and unwanted idea is finally shelved for good”.

Needless to say, Evolv will not be brought back for further use in New York City subways. But, this is not because a weapons detection system is not needed. On October 30th, a man was stabbed to death with a knife in a New York City subway station. Earlier in October, a subway conductor was stabbed by a rider and sustained serious injuries. There is certainly a need to keep weapons out of the subway system, but Evolv was deemed unable to do this job.

However, the pilot program also brought to light the positive aspects of Evolv. For example, an attorney involved with the subway systems pointed out that Evolv “seems to have the ability to avoid racial discrimination”. Systems like Evolv could be a step in the right direction for greater racial equality. Evolv has the potential to relieve many minorities who are often disproportionately targeted by human-run security systems.

Additionally, many have pointed out that no shooting occurred in New York City subways while the pilot program was active. Perhaps Evolv was effective at deterring potential criminals from attempting to bring weapons into the subway in the first place.

False Advertising Lawsuit

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which is responsible for protecting the public from deceptive or unfair business practices, has recently settled with Evolv over false advertising.

The lengthy lawsuit points out and takes issue with Evolv’s past claims of “low nuisance alarm rates” and detectors allowing people to “walk through at the pace of life without always stopping, removing coats or backpacks, or emptying pockets”. However, the FTC found that “[Evolv] Express has alarmed often on harmless personal items, including Chromebooks, binders, water bottles, and other items that students often bring to school”. This contradiction has been especially felt at Ballard in frustrations with false positives.

The lawsuit goes on to call out Evolv for claims of artificial intelligence, detectors being set off by metallic items despite insistence that detectors are not metal detectors, inconsistency in sensitivity settings, detectors not being able to detect certain guns and knives, schools needing to hire additional personnel to run detectors, and not disclosing that research done on the detectors was designed, changed, and had certain information from it removed all by Evolv. The lawsuit can be read in its entirety here.

As part of the settlement, Evolv did not admit any wrongdoings and was not given any monetary penalties. However, Evolv is now required to stop making certain claims about their product regarding accuracy and false alarm rates. Additionally, schools will be allowed to break contracts with Evolv without penalty, meaning JCPS could now back out of their contract with Evolv without consequence.

Mike Ellenbogen, Evolv’s interim CEO, has asserted that “this inquiry was about past marketing language and not our system’s ability to add value to security operations”. However, much of the lawsuit takes issue with the actual effectiveness of the weapons detectors, which the FTC has concluded have “failed to alarm on some weapons, including guns and knives”. This is not an issue with the wording of certain advertisements as Evolv frames it, but an issue with the inability of Evolv’s weapons detectors to detect weapons.

This lawsuit suggests that Evolv is not what it says it may be. However, JCPS announced that “nothing has changed on its end” and that they will continue using Evolv weapons detectors despite the recent outpouring of serious accusations against the company.

Carolyn Callahan, the JCPS Chief of Communications, has asserted that JCPS is making no changes in response to this lawsuit. “Nothing has changed for us as it relates to the weapons detection systems. We have been happy with the results and have seen a reduction in the number of guns found in schools since implementing the systems.”

JCPS seems to have fallen victim to a $17 million dollar scam that it is now refusing to evolve past.