Vendor Review

Motorola Concealed Weapons Detection (CWD) Motorola Solutions CWD and Avigilon Concealed Weapons Detection Reviewed: Who Builds It, What It Costs, What to Get in Writing

The single most useful fact about Motorola Solutions CWD is one that rarely makes it into a sales conversation: Motorola does not build the detection engine. This review works through who does, what the product genuinely offers, which published claims a federal regulator has since acted on, and what a deployment really costs. We sell competing camera analytics, so every claim below is sourced to Motorola's own materials or to public records.

Last updated July 2026

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The Short Answer

What Is Motorola Solutions Concealed Weapons Detection?

Motorola Solutions Concealed Weapons Detection, sold as CWD and also listed under the Avigilon brand, is a walk-through screening portal for entrances. Visitors pass between two sensor towers without emptying pockets or handing over bags, and the system flags where a suspected threat sits on the body or in a bag. Motorola states it screens up to 3,600 people per hour, or 60 per minute. Each tower carries front and rear Avigilon H5A Modular cameras with two 3 MP imagers, and alarms feed into Avigilon Unity Video. It is sold in North America only.

The detection technology is not Motorola's. Motorola's own fact sheet describes the product as "powered by Evolv Technology," and its June 9, 2021 launch announcement said the system came about "through an agreement with Evolv Technologies, Inc," with alerts displayed on "an Express tablet." In practical terms, CWD is the Evolv Express sensor platform wrapped in Motorola's camera, video management, and radio ecosystem. Anyone comparing CWD against Evolv Express as two independent options is comparing two packages of one detection engine.

That matters because of what happened next. In November 2024 the Federal Trade Commission announced a settlement order restricting Evolv from making claims about weapons detection accuracy, false alarm rates, screening speed, the ability to ignore harmless items without emptying pockets, and reductions in labor costs. Those categories cover most of what a screening portal is marketed on. CWD collateral still in circulation predates that order.

CWD at a glance

Detection engine: Evolv Technology
Throughput claim: Up to 3,600 per hour
Accuracy published: None
Onboard cameras: H5A, 2 x 3 MP
Availability: North America only
Public price: Not published

The fact that changes the comparison

Motorola CWD is Evolv technology in a Motorola ecosystem

This is stated plainly in Motorola's own documents, so it is not a secret, but it is routinely lost by the time a buyer is comparing shortlisted options. The CWD fact sheet published under the Avigilon brand opens by describing "Motorola Solutions Concealed Weapons Detection (CWD), powered by Evolv Technology." The June 2021 press release announcing the product said it was launched "through an agreement with Evolv Technologies, Inc," and described alerts appearing on "an Express tablet," which is Evolv's own product name.

The practical consequence is straightforward. If your evaluation matrix has a row for detection performance, CWD and Evolv Express should hold the same value in that row, because the sensing and classification are the same. What genuinely differs is everything built around the sensor: Motorola bundles the H5A cameras onto the towers, pipes alarms into Avigilon Unity Video, and can push alerts to radios through its own infrastructure. If you already run Motorola radios and Avigilon cameras, that integration is a real and defensible reason to choose the Motorola badge.

What it is not is a second opinion. Some buyers put Evolv and Motorola side by side specifically to hedge against a single vendor's detection performance. That hedge does not exist here. If you want genuine technical diversity in a shortlist, the alternative to look at is a different sensing platform, such as CEIA OPENGATE, rather than a different reseller of the same one.

Sourced to

Avigilon CWD fact sheet. "powered by Evolv Technology"; throughput of "up to 3,600 people per hour (60 per minute)"; H5A modular cameras front and back. Document dated June 2023.
Motorola Solutions press release, June 9, 2021. "through an agreement with Evolv Technologies, Inc"; alerts on "an Express tablet"; available in North America.
FTC announcement and proposed order, November 26, 2024. Claim restrictions on Evolv Technologies.

What Motorola publishes about CWD, and what it does not

Every figure below is a vendor claim from Motorola or Avigilon marketing materials. None of them is an independently verified test result, and we are labeling them that way because the distinction is the whole point of this section.

Specification	What Motorola states	What that leaves open
Throughput	Up to 3,600 people per hour, 60 per minute	A ceiling under ideal flow, not a rate sustained through alarm resolution
Detection accuracy	No figure published	The number buyers most want is the one nobody in this category prints
False alarm rate	No figure published	Claims that everyday items are distinguished, with no rate attached
Nuisance items	Distinguishes threats from cellphones, coins, keys	Which items, at which of the several sensitivity settings
Labor savings	Reduces labor costs by up to 70% in older collateral	No methodology, baseline, or site type given
Cameras	Two 3 MP H5A Micro Bullet imagers, front and rear, wide dynamic range	Clear and well specified, one of the genuine advantages
Deployment	Indoor and outdoor options, movable, multiple sensitivity settings	Sensitivity is the real performance dial and is not documented publicly
Price	Not published	Quoted per deployment through channel partners

The sensitivity setting is the specification that matters

Motorola notes that operators can "choose from a number of different sensitivity settings to optimize for different threat levels." That sentence carries more weight than any headline number on the page. Sensitivity governs the trade between weapons missed and harmless items flagged, and moving it changes both at once. A demonstration tuned high will find everything and alarm constantly; one tuned low will glide people through and miss more. Ask which profile the vendor intends to deploy at your site, ask what it is explicitly tuned not to alarm on, and ask for both answers in writing. A quoted throughput figure means nothing without the sensitivity profile it was measured at.

Procurement risk worth an hour of your time

Why the Evolv FTC order belongs in your CWD evaluation

On November 26, 2024 the FTC announced a proposed settlement with Evolv Technologies. The complaint alleged Evolv made false or unsupported claims about which weapons its scanners detect and which harmless items they ignore, and unsupported claims that its use of AI made the systems more accurate, efficient, or cost effective than traditional metal detectors. The resulting order restricts Evolv from asserting: the ability to detect weapons; the ability to ignore harmless personal items without visitors removing them from pockets and bags; weapons detection accuracy, including comparisons to metal detectors; false alarm rates, including such comparisons; screening speed; and reductions in labor costs. A limited set of K-12 customers, about 8% of the company's total, gained the right to cancel contracts. There was no monetary relief.

Now compare that list against the CWD fact sheet, which is dated June 2023 and therefore predates the order by about seventeen months. That document states the system "reduces labor costs by up to 70%," that it is "more effective than legacy metal detectors," that individuals "are not required to empty their pockets or place their bags in another area for inspection," that it "can intelligently distinguish between threats and everyday items like a cellphone, coins or keys," and that it screens up to 3,600 people per hour. Those five statements map almost one to one onto the six claim categories the FTC order addresses.

To be precise about what this does and does not mean: the order binds Evolv Technologies. It does not automatically govern how a separate company markets a product built on Evolv's technology, and a fact sheet written in 2023 was not written in defiance of an order that did not yet exist. There is no finding against Motorola Solutions here and we are not suggesting one.

The buyer's takeaway is procedural rather than accusatory. Marketing collateral in this category can be years old and can contain claim types that a federal regulator has since found unsupported when the originating vendor made them. So do not let any of those five statements do load-bearing work in your business case on the strength of a PDF. Ask whoever is selling to you to restate, in writing and on current letterhead, whatever claims your decision actually depends on. If a claim cannot survive being put in a dated letter, it should not survive in your board paper either.

Get these in writing, dated

1.The sensitivity profile to be deployed, and what it is tuned to ignore
2.Nuisance alarm rate per thousand people at a comparable site
3.Secondary screenings per hour implied by that rate at your traffic volume
4.Whether visitors must remove any item, and which
5.Any labor reduction claim, with the staffing baseline it assumes
6.Contract exit terms, given that K-12 cancellation rights were part of the FTC settlement

Nothing on this page is legal advice. Confirm procurement obligations with counsel.

The Avigilon integration is the real reason to pick this badge

Strip away the detection engine, which you can get from Evolv directly, and what Motorola adds is ecosystem. For an organization already standardized on Motorola, that is a legitimate and substantial advantage.

Unity Video alarms

A confirmed threat sends an alarm straight into Avigilon Unity Video for the operator, rather than living in a separate screening console nobody is watching.

Focus of Attention

Surfaces the alarm in the Unity Video interface so it competes for operator attention alongside everything else, which is how it should work.

Onboard H5A cameras

Front and rear 3 MP imagers with wide dynamic range built into the tower, useful at entrances that backlight badly. This is a genuine hardware advantage over a bare portal.

Appearance Search

Once a person is flagged, operators can search recorded video across cameras to find where else they have been, which shortens incident response.

Radio Alert

Text and text-to-voice alerts pushed to radios with alarm context and location. For sites already running Motorola radios this is the piece nobody else replicates.

Orchestrate

Rule-based workflow automation so an alarm reliably triggers the same sequence of actions every time instead of depending on who is on shift.

One integration to scrutinize before you sign: facial recognition

Motorola's CWD materials list facial recognition among the Unity Video capabilities the towers feed, described as identifying a person of interest for added context. Treat that as a separate procurement decision rather than a bundled feature, because it carries obligations the screening portal itself does not. Illinois biometric privacy law creates a private right of action over biometric identifiers, Texas has its own biometric statute enforced by the attorney general, and a number of US cities restrict government use of facial recognition outright. Many school boards and public agencies also have standing policies against it regardless of what state law permits.

None of that makes the capability unusable, and it may be switched off in your configuration. The failure mode is procedural: a weapons screening project gets approved on safety grounds, facial recognition rides along inside the same platform, and nobody runs it past counsel or the board because it was never the headline. Ask explicitly whether facial recognition is enabled, who can enable it later, and what your record retention obligations become if it is. Get the answer in the contract, not the demo.

What Motorola CWD costs

Motorola publishes no price for CWD and quotes through channel partners, so anyone printing a confident monthly figure is guessing. The usable public numbers come from bid documents, and because CWD runs on Evolv hardware, Evolv bid pricing is the closest honest proxy available.

Single indoor lane

$78,810

Over 48 months in the Buffalo Public Schools solicitation, roughly $1,642 per month for one screening lane.

Dual outdoor configuration

$153,290

Same document, roughly $3,194 per month. The widely repeated figure of about $2,500 per month is the middle of this range, not the range.

Staffing per 24/7 post

4 to 5 FTE

Shifts, relief, leave, and turnover. Fully loaded this passes $300,000 a year per lane and recurs for as long as the door is open.

Two things distort CWD budgets in year two. The first is staffing, which usually exceeds the hardware line and is often left out of the initial approval. The second is alarm resolution volume, which tracks visitor traffic rather than threat frequency, so a busy entrance consumes more staff hours even in a year with no weapon found. Model both from your actual door counts before you compare quotes. If you want the underlying hardware pricing in more detail, our Evolv Express pricing guide works through the same RFP line by line.

Motorola CWD compared with the honest alternatives

Including where each option beats us. Our product is in the last row and it does a different job, which the table says plainly rather than hiding.

Option	Detects concealed	Coverage	Added staff	Public price	Best for
Motorola Solutions CWD	Yes, Evolv engine	One entrance per lane	Yes, per lane	None	Sites already on Motorola radios and Avigilon video
Evolv Express direct	Yes, same engine	One entrance per lane	Yes, per lane	None, RFP data exists	Buyers who want the vendor of record to be the maker
CEIA OPENGATE	Yes, different platform	One entrance per lane	Yes, per lane	None	Genuine technical diversity in a shortlist, portability
Walk-through metal detector	Yes, metal only	One entrance per lane	Yes, more of it	Yes, widely sold	Low traffic doors and tight budgets
Surveillant camera analytics	No	Every camera you own	None	$39 to $42 per camera per month	Property-wide visible-weapon and intrusion coverage

Where CWD is the right call

You need concealed weapon screening at a defined entrance, you have the staffing to run it, and you already own Motorola radios or Avigilon cameras. In that situation the ecosystem integration is worth real money, because alarms land in the system your operators already watch and reach the radios they already carry. Nobody else can offer that combination, and it is a better reason to choose CWD than any performance claim on the brochure.

Where you should look elsewhere

You want a shortlist with genuinely independent detection platforms, in which case CWD and Evolv are one entry and CEIA is the second. You cannot fund an attendant per lane, in which case no portal will work regardless of brand. Or your actual requirement is property-wide awareness rather than door control, in which case a portal covering one entrance solves a small share of the problem and camera analytics cover the rest for a fraction of the operating cost.

Questions buyers ask about Motorola CWD

What is Motorola concealed weapons detection?

It is a walk-through screening portal sold by Motorola Solutions and listed under the Avigilon brand. Visitors pass between two sensor towers without emptying pockets or handing over bags, and the system indicates where a suspected threat sits on a body or in a bag. Motorola states it screens up to 3,600 people per hour and integrates alarms into Avigilon Unity Video.

Is Motorola CWD the same as Evolv Express?

It uses the same detection technology. Motorola describes CWD as powered by Evolv Technology, and its 2021 announcement said the product came about through an agreement with Evolv Technologies, with alerts shown on an Express tablet. The difference is the surrounding ecosystem: onboard Avigilon cameras, Unity Video integration, and Motorola radio alerting.

How accurate is Motorola concealed weapons detection?

Motorola publishes no detection accuracy figure for CWD, and neither does any other screening portal vendor. The only performance numbers in its materials are throughput and a labor cost reduction claim. Any accuracy percentage you find attributed to CWD online came from a third party, not from Motorola, so treat it accordingly.

How many people can Motorola CWD screen per hour?

Motorola states up to 3,600 people per hour, or 60 per minute. Read that as a ceiling under ideal free-flowing conditions rather than a sustained rate. Real throughput depends on your sensitivity setting, because every alarm pulls someone aside for secondary screening and that is where queues actually form.

Does Motorola CWD detect non-metallic weapons?

Motorola describes detection of concealed firearms and, in its 2021 announcement, firearms, metallic weapons and improvised explosive devices. The sensing approach is built around how metallic and conductive mass behaves in an electromagnetic field, so a wholly non-metallic item is a poor fit for the technology. Ask the vendor directly about any specific threat item that matters to you.

How much does Motorola concealed weapons detection cost?

Motorola does not publish pricing and quotes through channel partners. Because CWD runs on Evolv hardware, the closest public proxy is the Buffalo Public Schools solicitation, which priced a single indoor lane at $78,810 over 48 months and a dual outdoor configuration at $153,290. Staffing typically exceeds the hardware cost over the contract term.

Does the FTC order against Evolv apply to Motorola CWD?

The order binds Evolv Technologies, not Motorola Solutions, and there is no finding against Motorola. It still matters to a CWD buyer, because the detection engine is Evolv and older CWD collateral carries claims in the same categories the order covers. The sensible response is to ask for the claims your decision depends on in writing, dated and current.

Does Motorola CWD use facial recognition?

Facial recognition is listed among the Avigilon Unity Video capabilities that CWD towers feed into, alongside Appearance Search. It is a separate decision from the screening portal and carries separate legal exposure under state biometric privacy laws and local restrictions. Confirm in the contract whether it is enabled, who can enable it later, and what retention rules apply.

Do visitors have to empty their pockets for Motorola CWD?

Motorola materials say people can walk through without emptying pockets or presenting bags separately. Note that this exact claim type is among those the FTC order restricts Evolv from making, so verify it against your own conditions during a site trial rather than accepting it from a brochure. Test with the phones, laptops, water bottles, and bags your visitors actually carry.

Can camera AI replace Motorola CWD?

No, and we sell camera AI. A camera cannot see a weapon concealed under clothing or inside a bag, so it cannot do what a screening portal does. The two are complementary: the portal controls one entrance, while camera analytics watch every other camera on the property for weapons that are visible, plus intrusion, loitering, and vehicles.

Screening Covers One Door. Cover the Other Ninety.

Surveillant runs visible-weapon, person, vehicle, intrusion, and license plate detection on the ONVIF and RTSP cameras you already own, at a published $39 to $42 per camera per month, with a free plan for one camera.

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No credit card required. We do not sell screening portals, and our software does not detect concealed weapons.