Dallas Installed AI Cameras On Its Garbage Trucks That Photograph Every House And Scan For Code Violations
It turns out those Flock cameras aren't the only example of AI surveillance that are ticking people off anymore. The city of Dallas, TX has installed side-facing AI-powered cameras onto its garbage trucks that photograph properties, scan the photos for any potential code violations, and assign what's called a 'blight score' based on the severity of the code infraction.
50 trash trucks carry two cameras each, aimed at either side of the street, where they take photos from the public right-of-way to flag code violations. So far over 21,000 properties have been flagged, resulting in about 1,800 courtesy notices which, if left unaddressed, can later turn into a fine.
NBC Dallas Fort Worth obtained city records that show notes on every infraction the cameras found, including their blight score which ranks code violations from one to four based on their severity. It includes complaints like lawn grass height, debris on the sidewalk, branches on the lawn, and issues with paint.
Unsurprisingly the majority of citations were issued in economically challenged neighborhoods
Dallas announced a three-year, $2.5 million contract with the company City Detect for these AI cameras last year, but the city only began testing them on trash trucks in April, and ramped up their efforts over the summer. NBC mapped the locations of the code violations detected by the cameras and found that most detections are in economically depressed areas in Southern Dallas.
Human reviewers use the blight scores as a way to determine which photos to analyze and which properties to notify about their infractions, city officials told NBC. The goal is saving time and helping code enforcement officers detect violations more quickly, they said, but residents counter that the cameras are a violation of privacy and that the stricter enforcement is a threat to Dallas' historic Bottom neighborhood, originally settled as a Freedmen's Town in 1845. City officials denied that was the intent of the program.
The cameras blur license plates and the faces of any humans in the images, and City Detect's CEO said they are not connected to law enforcement or any federal databases. Dallas City Council member Chad West proposed a budget amendment that would strip funding for the cameras on Wednesday, but he agreed to table his request after the city manager apparently agreed to a hearing on the issue in December.
A majority of Dallas City Council members signaled that they want to move forward with their $1.5 million budget to keep the city's 321 AI-powered Flock ALPR cameras operational since they are "a key tool for solving crimes and tracking down suspects." The vote is non-binding, but comes in opposition to a suggestion to cut funding for these controversy embroiled AI cameras, too.