I’m sure whoever thought this might be a good idea — that would be the Dallas city council members who approved this contract — thought no one would ever find out about it.
But nothing stays secret for long, not even furtive movements like this one, which added AI-addled cameras to garbage trucks with the apparent hope of providing the city with another revenue stream.
AI-powered cameras mounted on Dallas trash collection trucks have photographed and rated roughly 21,000 properties since April with a “blight score,” according to city records obtained by NBC 5 Investigates, raising concerns about privacy and whether the technology could lead to more code enforcement fines in lower-income neighborhoods.
That’s right, Dallas homes were being judged by cameras and algorithms, assigning “blight” scores to homes the garbage trucks serviced. It will come as no surprise to anyone that the highest concentration of cameras (and, consequently, the highest amount of “blight” determinations) targeted the poorest neighborhoods in Dallas.
What a missed opportunity. This would be an easy way to quickly survey where additional municipal services or proactive outreach are needed.
Since neighborhoods that could use additional support are often least equipped to seek it out, and tend to be less responsive/trusting of public social workers conducting surveys in-person, this could expedite the field work to get help more quickly and efficiently to exactly the “blighted” neighborhoods that need it most.
But it’s Dallas, so I share the author’s distrust of the city council’s motivations.
