Dallas Garbage Trucks Use AI Cameras to Assign Homes 'Blight Scores' for Code Violations

Dallas garbage trucks are using AI cameras to flag code violations and give homes a "blight score"

Serving tech enthusiasts for over 25 years. TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust. WTF?! Want another reason why there's a big pushback against artificial intelligence? In Dallas, AI-powered cameras mounted on trash collection trucks are photographing properties and assigning them a "blight score" - a rating based on perceived code violations. NBC 5 obtained city records showing that Dallas started testing the AI cameras on bulk trash collection trucks in April, ramping up their use over the summer. The cameras identified at least one possible code violation on more than 21,000 properties. These include grass height, litter, debris, overgrown weeds, and structural issues. The properties are then assigned a "blight score" based on the level of violations. A score of 1 is the least severe, while 4 is most severe. Some homeowners whose properties appeared on the list received code enforcement "courtesy notices," which could result in fines if the violations aren't addressed. One person whose property was flagged by the camera for a chimney paint violation and given a score of 2 said the rating was too severe - even a 1 seems a little harsh. Courtesy: Edward Ayala, NBC 5 Investigates Plenty of other locals are far from happy about the cameras. There are the obvious privacy concerns about photos being taken of someone's home without their consent, and many are asking who has defined what counts as blight on their property. The system consists of 100 cameras mounted in pairs on 50 brush and bulky-waste trucks, with one pointing from each side of the vehicle. The 1920 × 1080 cameras use fixed-focal-length lenses and have no optical or digital zoom. Dallas officials say they operate at street level and cannot see above fences. The city expects the trucks to provide a visual scan of Dallas roughly once every 30 days. City Detect, which operates the cameras, said it has no say in how the city uses the data for enforcement. CEO Gavin Baum-Blake said faces and license plates are blurred. The company configures the AI according to Dallas's requirements. The city says its models were trained on examples covering different seasons, building styles, neighborhoods, lighting conditions, weather, and geographic areas, with the aim of reducing inconsistent or biased detections. Images and other data are kept in cloud storage located in the United States, and City Detect maintains the data for the duration of the contract. There's also the problem of AI getting things wrong and just hallucinating things that aren't there. There was a case last year in which a 16-year-old high school student was swarmed by police and handcuffed after an AI camera system mistook the bag of Doritos he was carrying for a gun. The biggest concern surrounding the Dallas trucks is that the program could increase fines for those already struggling financially in economically challenged areas. The city said it has already sent out 1,800 courtesy notices, and its goal is to issue around 5,200 per year. The good news for locals is that the cameras might not be around for much longer. Dallas City Councilmember Chad West has proposed an amendment to the budget to stop funding the three-year, $2.5 million camera contract. West agreed to table his request to strip funding for the cameras after he said the city manager agreed to a hearing on the issue in December. While he believes the cameras do have uses, such as detecting illegal dumping sites, there needs to be further investigation into their impact on families and who can access the images.

Big Brother on Wheels: Trash Trucks With AI Cameras Are Coming to a City Near You

If you're a homeowner in Dallas who has let the trash can in your front yard spill over onto the sidewalk, or occasionally ignored your garden until it's become overgrown with weeds, be warned: Your property might be photographed by an AI-powered camera fixed to one of the city's roving garbage trucks and added to a bureaucratic shit list. Since April, over 21,000 properties across Dallas, Texas, have been photographed by these cameras and assigned a "blight score" -- essentially an official tidiness grade -- according to a Wednesday report from the city's local NBC affiliate. The zip codes with the highest number of civic code violations flagged by the cameras, according to the report, were concentrated in the city's lower-income southern quadrant. Around 1,800 "courtesy notices" have already been issued by the municipal government to the owners of lower-scoring properties: a warning to clean up their act or start paying fees. The program is reportedly funded through a three-year, $2.5 million city contract with City Detect, a technology company "on a mission to revolutionize the way local governments understand and interact with their built environment," according to its website. "Leveraging cutting-edge technology, we provide detailed, up-to-date insights on housing [and] roadside conditions." Its cameras, typically installed on the driver's side of a city vehicle to afford the best view of the neighborhood, look a little like a helmet-mounted GoPro. Using machine vision, they're trained to automatically capture cases of neighborhood "blight," such as graffiti, collapsed roofs, broken windows, and other signs of dilapidation and potential criminal activity. The company's marketing appears to primarily target municipal governments with limited personnel and budgets. It echoes a sales pitch that many AI-powered surveillance companies have been making to police departments in recent years. In short: Let AI handle the busywork, so your staff can focus on more pressing tasks. In addition to its contract with the city of Dallas, City Detect also currently partners with at least sixteen other cities across the United States. Privacy issues? Irrelevant, says City Detect: "Images are captured in public spaces where there is no expectation of privacy," the company wrote in the FAQ section of its website. "Legally, there are no privacy concerns, similar to Google Street View or standard code enforcement practices." City Detect also says on its website that its AI cameras blur human faces and license plates by default, that it doesn't earn money on a per-citation basis, and that images captured by its cameras don't get fed into any law enforcement databases. Those promises notwithstanding, the company could very likely face strong opposition from an American population that's increasingly wary of AI-powered surveillance, and with the growing capability of tech companies to covertly gather personal data. Flock Safety has been hit particularly hard by the backlash: Republican Senator Josh Hawley launched an investigation into that company last week, citing the many documented cases of police officers using its automated license plate readers to track people who were not suspected of being involved in a crime, including ex-wives and ex-girlfriends. Over 200 counties and cities across the U.S. cancelled their contracts with Flock since August 2021, according to data published last week by Secure Justice, an Oakland-based nonprofit focused on privacy law. Close to eighty percent of those (166) were made last month alone. A Dallas city councilmember named Chad West proposed an amendment to the municipal government to cut funding for the City Detect partnership, which he said could end up as "a tax on the poor," according to the NBC report. But West agreed to table his proposal until after a city council hearing to discuss the use of the AI-powered cameras scheduled for December.