WRAL Investigates: What the weapons detection system at schools caught

So what’s the difference? Metal detectors are self-explanatory. The two sensors pick up metal passing through.

Weapons detectors are more sophisticated. They use a combination of sensors like x-ray, thermal imaging which detects differences in body heat and even millimeter wave technology. Your body gives off those waves, so the scanner can detect items that do not.

This high tech ‘picture’ is then processed using artificial intelligence to detect objects that could be weapons. How accurate are they? For the first time, WRAL Investigates was allowed to put them to the test.

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"Morning. Good morning," Tarboro High School Principal Terry Hopkins says every morning as he greets students alongside the Evolv weapons detection system at the start of the school day.

The system beeps as one student walks through. "Step to the side, right there," Hopkins tells the student. Edgecombe County Deputy and School Resource Officer Rickie Dozier mans the system, which tells him the location on the student where a weapon might be found.

"An eyeglass case," Dozier says as he pulls things from the student’s bag. This time, the system detected an eyeglass case because of its shape, which is similar to a pipe bomb or could be used to conceal another weapon. Once the check is done, students go on their way.

WRAL Investigates reached out to several school systems in our area to test the accuracy of the Evolv system. Edgecombe County is the only one that agreed.

"What we’re doing here is working for us," Edgecombe County Sheriff Cleveland Atkinson, Jr. told WRAL Investigates.

Atkinson was among the attendees as WRAL Investigates put the system to the test. We gathered several items, some clearly weapons, like knives and others, like a glue gun because of its shape, to see what the system would catch. With the full cooperation of the school and sheriff’s office, we walked through the system multiple times with items in backpacks, pockets and socks.

"See how it’s dragging right there with the right leg," says Dozier as he points to the Evolv screen. The system saw something suspicious on our WRAL Investigates producer.

"It’s showing an object down by your ankle there. You got anything on you?" Dozier asked. He then pulls up the producer’s pants leg. "We have a chisel here," Dozier announced.

Beep after beep, the system detected things that could be used as weapons, including several sizes of knives, scissors and various items of hardware.

The system also flagged items that weren’t a typical weapon, but had the size or density of something that seemed odd, including a battery-powered drill and a large metal vise. It also avoided false alarms on things like a plastic flashlight and a small, plastic glue gun used for crafting.

Previous testing overseas, when Evolv was still fairly new, was critical of the system’s ability to detect knives. In our test, the results were almost perfect.

"The machinery’s going to do its due diligence, but we also have to do our side too to make to keep these babies safe," says Atkinson.

75% of the items WRAL Investigates tried to bring in were flagged. Of the items that went undetected, only two could be used as weapons, meaning the system was 90% accurate in keeping out threats.

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"I’ll take it. Let’s put it that way. I’ll take it, and at the end of the day we’re going to work foward from that 90% to what you saw today. We’re going to work towards 100%," the sheriff said. "We’ve got to do everything possible to make sure our students are safe," he added.

Chanda Battle is the director of support services for Edgecombe County schools. She says Evolv is a great deterrent, which they saw on the first day of deployment. "The kiddos were unaware of what it actually detected, so when we did a sweep outside the building we found all kinds of things from pocket knives to vapes to scissors," she told WRAL Investigates.

The school system knows the technology isn’t perfect, but it’s better than nothing. "A person has a much better chance against a small pocket knife that might slide through than we do of a gun or any other large object," Battle explained.

The sheriff agrees, "Safety, safety, safety safety. It is a tool. We’ve got to do everything possible to make sure our students are safe," he says.

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Edgecombe County was allowed to use Covid relief funds for the system because the sensors detect temperatures, which was a key defense during the pandemic. That money paid the $1.3 million for the machines, as well as an ongoing fee for upgrades, when necessary.