The bad news is that the scourge of AI-powered Flock cameras is just the start of the surveillance state we will enter if action is not taken. Proving that point is an NBC 5 Investigates report based on city records showing that Dallas homes are now being “blight scored” by AI-powered cameras. Let that sink in for a moment – the city is sending out cameras to record the state of your home, and take action if it is not satisfied.
If that’s not enough, Dallas residents are actually paying for surveillance on their own homes through taxes.
Garbage Trucks Are Judging The Residents Of Dallas, Texas
City Detect PASS AI CameraCity Detect
Of course, if you want to send out AI-powered cameras to record a database of issues and flag possible code enforcement violations for review, the best way to do it would be using vehicles that regularly traverse the same neighborhoods. Garbage collection trucks are the perfect solution, and that is exactly the scheme that the City of Dallas is pioneering. And it has covered tens of thousands of homes already.
NBC 5 Investigates obtained city records through an open records request and found that properties were surveilled and assigned a “blight score” from 1 to 4, ranging from least severe to most severe. Some of the homeowners whose properties were found to have violations after a code enforcement review are now receiving code enforcement “courtesy notices.”
And since these trucks cover the same routes every day, a sustained database of privately owned homes and businesses is, in theory, being built up. The cameras see not only homes, but anything in the yards such as signs or flags. How all that information might be used to evaluate a “blight score” or something more is anyone’s guess.
Why Is Dallas Going To Such Lengths?
NBC 5 Investigates – city records obtained from Dallas city council.NBC 5 Investigates
There are a few schools of thought on why Dallas is so keen to go full authoritarian government on its residents. One is that the city is looking to issue fines as a cash grab. Another is that it’s a way of putting financial pressure on occupants of houses that have been handed down over generations that are being gentrified.
One of those occupants is Dennis Edwards. “What they’re trying to do is they’re trying to flush us out. They’re trying to get us gone,” Edwards said. “The taxes going up, they putting code violations on my door.”
Civil rights attorney Daniel Woislaw agrees. “I immediately have concerns any time the phrase ‘blight score’ comes up, because blight is often used by cities around the country as a pretext,” he said. “What you have is some cities basically saying, ‘Hey, these properties are blighted, so we’re taking them and then turning around immediately and giving it to a private developer.'”
CarBuzz Insight – Why This Matters
Flock camera image and annotations.DeFlock
If people are not happy about Flock cameras following them around and filling its databases with their movements, then the City Detect system Dallas is using will take things a notch further. There are many reasons that running cameras on vehicles to surveil homes is a bad idea, ranging from the presumption of criminality inherent in such monitoring, to the challenge of securing the data, to the same kind of stalking abuses the Flock system has experienced.
The company supplying cameras and its PASS AI detection system to Dallas is called City Detect. While the system can be used for other purposes, such as detecting vandalism or storm damage, the city is allegedly using it solely for home evaluations.
Source: NBC Dallas Fort Worth
