But the documents obtained by Motherboard provide a more detailed look into how Evolv scanners are actually deployed and the problems they actually face. On the ground, the reality of deploying Evolv scanners is very different than marketing materials suggest. Some school administrators are reporting that the scanners have caused “chaos”—failing to detect common handguns at commonly-used sensitivity settings, mistaking everyday school items for deadly weapons, and failing to deliver on the company’s promise of frictionless school security.“Today was probably the least safe day,” one principal observed the day scanners were deployed at her school, because the machines were triggering false alarms and requiring manual searches on “almost every child as they walked through” monopolizing the attention of safety officers who would otherwise be monitoring the halls and other entrances.***The Charlotte Mecklenburg School District (CMS) purchased the Evolv scanners because it had a gun problem. Twenty-three guns were found among its 180 campuses with more than 140,000 students in the first four months of the school year before the scanners were purchased. The Evolv scanners were one of the measures identified by the district’s Student Safety and Well Being workgroup, according to a January 2 email from the school district’s chief of police Melissa Mangum. The school district quickly agreed to pay $4.9 million for a service subscription to put scanners at its 21 high schools for a four-year period.Sign up for Motherboard’s daily newsletter for a regular dose of our original reporting, plus behind-the-scenes content about our biggest stories.
- There is no evidence in the thousands of emails the district ever sought more information on how the scanners actually work, and administrators ignored evidence that they do not detect weapons with perfect reliability. For instance, before the contract was signed, another school district informed CMS they were able to get a Glock pistol through the machines without detection at the sensitivity setting they use daily.
- Marketing and sales staff from Evolv were regularly looped into email threads on how to respond to media inquiries and staff concerns
- Despite promises of “line-free” and seamless scanning, the rollout was, in the words of one principal, “a cluster” (as in short for “clusterfuck”). “Currently, the reality is that ‘weapons of mass instruction’ set off almost every child as they walked through,” the principal said.
- Security experts consulted by the district after the botched rollout warned the school system there is “no magic to any of these” proposed fixes and the easiest thing to do would be to tell students to “get there earlier.”
- The statistical evidence that Evolv’s scanners made schools safer is weak. During the 2021-22 school year, 30 guns were found on the school’s campuses by means other than Evolv scanners, compared to one detected by the scanners. A decline in guns found on campus began months before Evolv scanners were implemented, suggesting other measures such as an anonymous tip system through a smartphone app were more effective.
- After the Uvalde shooting, several concerned parents emailed the school district to ask what is being done to keep kids safe. The chair of the board of education responded, telling parents “A body scanner would not have stopped what happened at the school in Uvalde (or Marjorie Stoneman Douglas HS, or Sandy Hook Elementary).” But in an email template later designed for responding to such inquiries, the district’s communications team did not include this fact and instead listed the body scanners as a preventative measure against mass shootings. Security experts broadly believe body scanners and metal detectors do not prevent mass shootings, a fact Evolv conceded when asked directly.
It took all 10 people to even come close to managing the chaos at the one entrance (they are supposed to eventually be at other entrances)…we do not have the manpower for this. We must have another CSA [school security] to help search these bags. Currently, the reality is that ‘weapons of mass instruction’ set off almost every child as they walk through. If you have multiple binders or spiral notebooks in your bag then it lights up and we must search. The solve I was given was literally to ask kids not to bring so many binders. Seriously? So again…weapons of mass instruction at [Ardrey Kell] are going to cause chaos everyday :) Today was probably the least safe day at AK as all hands were at the front doors instead of monitoring kids throughout the building. Brian Schultz was here today so he witnessed it first-hand.