Following the recent Antioch High School shooting, MNPS installed Evolv Technologies concealed weapons scanners at the front doors of the school as a pilot program to assess how the technology works and the feasibility of implementing it district-wide.

But depending on how the technology is being used, there’s a chance it would not have detected the pistol in the Antioch High School shooter’s backpack.

“Evolv is saying that it can automatically differentiate weapons from common objects — you know, it’s going to have this seamless, touchless experience,” Don Maye, head of operations at the security and surveillance research group IPVM, told the Banner. “But in reality, you either have to lower the sensitivity settings so low that weapons will go through, or you put it so high that most metal objects will alert it, and that really seems to defeat the value proposition of Evolv.”

Evolv’s concealed weapons scanners detect ferrous metals — metals containing iron as the main component. However, unlike a traditional metal detector, the sensors are supposed to distinguish between weapons and harmless everyday items instead of alerting when they detect metal. Unlike traditional metal detectors, which require people to file through one by one, emptying their pockets and bags of any metal items, Evolv scanners are meant to allow large numbers of people to quickly enter through security checkpoints without having to discard harmless metal objects.

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