Just kidding. This article is really about how to help police and emergency responders reduce crime and provide aid to the public by leveraging AI (FN1). As cities are trying to figure out how to work within budget, and make everyone safer, shouldn’t there be some consideration about how to leverage that which is available in a smarter way? You can also see my previous article titled “SO…IF THERE ARE SMART CITIES, DOES THAT MEAN THERE ARE DUMB CITIES?” The thesis of this article is that we should leverage technology to help the police and emergency responders do their job in a responsible and technical manner (FN2). Another purpose of this article is to provoke discussion.
CAMERAS ARE DUMB
When you think about it, all the video cameras that show smash and grabs, crowds that get out of control, and generally dumb people doing dumb things are themselves dumb. All cameras do is record the activity. We hope the person monitoring the video feed hasn’t gone to the bathroom while the mayhem is going on. Or even worse, the videos are storing information only later to be deleted without any historical learning about crime or the propensity of crime. This is the age of AI; we can do better. Transforming the video feed into automated surveillance to detect suspicious behaviors, recognize faces, vehicles and license plates can help identify suspects, potential threats, or missing persons.
I know there are privacy concerns, but rather than immediately saying no, I believe there should be more discussion about the social weight of the potential opportunity to find a missing child versus the potential for racial profiling. Right now it seems to me that people are digging their heels in on privacy and data collection – sort of like Democrats and Republicans… sorry, I had to throw a political statement in. Why do we generally find license plate information permissible for Amber alerts and toll collection, but not in other instances? We are not winning the battle on crime. If you post something on Facebook, or are caught running in a crowd on a public street towards a demonstration, I think use of the information is fair game subject to limitations on the length of time, how the data can be stored, security, etc. Really, we don’t want McDonalds to have public street information to now blast a discount on french fries…
Back to why cameras are dumb – it’s because there is no predictive forward action to stop a crime or help someone in need. Today, cameras show what happens, and we generally react after the fact. Think of the program COPS… Nothing against the program, but all they are showing is the crime that has occurred or in progress. Or those “social media influencers” that video a nefarious act so they can increase their likes. Really dislike them…
BACK TO CAMERAS
While there is merit to recording the crime, wouldn’t it be better to proactively attempt to use the camera feed to stop the crime? Wouldn’t it be better to engage in predictive law enforcement and deploy help to areas based on analysis of real time and historical data? I am leaning yes but, hey, just trying to promote reasoned dialogue.
There is already a mass of data out there such as crime maps, video feeds, traffic, and social media feeds. Largely, all this data is disconnected data points and after the fact. Predictive? No. What AI can do is compile, interpret and develop predictive responses in milliseconds.
CAMERAS AND AI
The elegance of the solution is that most cities have cameras. This means that cities are using existing infrastructure versus deploying something entirely new, like pre-loaded tear gas balls on light poles for those nutcases storming public buildings. Just kidding (FN3).
In a real-world sense, camera video is no different than data collected from existing sensors or enterprise infrastructure (think a water leak and your sensor goes off). AI has the ability to train itself to ‘see’ and decide what is most important about that data in milliseconds.
AI can interpret the direction of crowds, identify a drawn gun, determine based on traffic patterns the best escape route. Get a room of programmers, and in short order, you will have a pre-trained model that looks for scenarios that trigger a response. The response could mean faster response time, reallocation of resources, prevention of flash mobs, and supplementation for 911 which is often overworked and understaffed.
SUMMARY
With great power comes great responsibility. Are we using AI responsibly? How do we avoid mission creep where data is used for activities beyond its intended purpose? How do we avoid 1984! Most federal and state officials have long acknowledged that surveillance cannot be unlimited, but there is currently an inconsistent regulatory framework as well as differing community sentiment for using “public data”. This lack of a comprehensive framework means there is no uniform standard for how the data should be used, or how long it should be kept. On the other hand, we are potentially reducing the time to respond to critical situations and giving the heroes the tools to do their job. If anything, this article promotes discussion.
FOOTNOTES:
FN1: I wrote this article with input from Chris Medina, the founder of nureal.ai and who is far smarter in technology than I am. Chris likes to eat and drink the same things as I do so we tend to sit around and talk about everything from how to create hangover pills to smart cities. Our interest in this article is we see the opportunity of data consolidation and, through AI, engage in predictive measurement to help police and first responders. Chris’s company is already well on its way to creating a marketplace for AI products to make a city smarter.
FN2: Certain politicians talk about defunding the police. Now that is a dumb idea. Let’s give them the tools to succeed and help police and emergency responders do their jobs better.
FN3: Read my PERFECT TRIFECTA article for how to merge AI’s predictive analytics with private networks and Digital Twin solutions.
About nureal.ai
Leading the democratization of artificial intelligence by offering a marketplace of affordable AI programs.
About the author
Gary Sumihiro is the founder of Sumihiro Investments, LLC a global strategic consulting firm. Learn more at www.sumihiroinvestmentsllc.com.
– We at SI work with these types of technologies because we believe they are for the greater good of humanity and responsible technology. If interested in our business and private equity AI, please contact us.