It is the latest controversy to emerge from the growing weapon- and gunshot-detection niche in government technology.
Based in Massachusetts, Evolv sells security screening systems backed by artificial intelligence that can detect weapons. Schools and public transit systems have used the tools to help secure their operations.
The Baltimore public school system, for instance, earlier this year signed a $5.46 million, four-year deal to use Evolv technology even as the FTC was investigating the marketing claims.
In a proposed settlement, the federal agency said Evolv “deceptively advertised” that its “scanners would detect all weapons” while ignoring “harmless” personal items carried by people, and via a process that required less labor than metal detectors.
In reality, according to the FTC, the company’s technology “failed in several instances to detect weapons in schools while flagging harmless personal items typically brought to schools, like laptops, binders and water bottles.”
In one instance, a knife missed by the company’s scanners was used in 2022 in a school stabbing, according to the agency.
The company also advised schools to “add conveyor belts and other measures,” contradicting the labor-reduction claims.
“To reduce false positive rates, Evolv in 2023 introduced a more sensitive setting for Express users with the goal of detecting more knives,” the FTC said. “Despite this, Evolv said some knives will be missed, more false alarms will occur and additional staffing may be required to run the machines.”
More than 800 schools in 40 states have deployed Evolv weapons-detection scanners, according to the FTC.
As part of the proposed settlement, Evolv would let some of its K-12 school clients — those who signed deals with the company between April 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023 — to cancel those contracts.
In its own statement, Evolv said that it “disagrees with the FTC’s allegations” and has not admitted wrongdoing, but has decided to resolve the issue so it can focus on its “core mission of protecting lives through innovation.”
The company said the federal agency did not “challenge the core efficacy” of the company’s products, including its use of AI.
“Instead, the focus of the inquiry was related to how the technology was described for a period of time in historical marketing materials,” the Evolv statement read.
The proposed settlement of the FTC has no mention of any financial penalties.
“We worked collaboratively with the FTC to resolve this matter and are pleased that the FTC did not challenge the fundamental effectiveness of our technology and that the resolution does not include any monetary relief,” said Mike Ellenbogen, interim president and CEO of Evolv Technology, in the statement. “We appreciated the opportunity to demonstrate for the FTC our Evolv Express system and our customers’ diligence in researching, testing and ultimately deploying our solution in myriad environments.”
The proposed settlement prohibits the company from making “any misrepresentations about” the power of its products to detect weapons while ignoring “harmless personal items”; the accuracy and speed of its technology; comparative labor costs; testing; and “any material aspect of its performance,” an area that covers artificial intelligence.
Evolv is hardly the only weapon- or gunshot-detection tech supplier to face recent scrutiny.
In Oakland and Chicago, for instance, the use of ShotSpotter gunshot detection tools for police has attracted opposition, with debates involving the accuracy of the technology as well as local political factors.
Potential violations of personal privacy also have sparked resistance to other competing technologies, as seen again in Chicago with an idea to use ZeroEyes tools to detect weapons on mass transit.
