COMPUTER COPS: Inside the big business of selling AI to the police
I stood before a hulking glass and brick structure in the heart of Fort Worth, Texas. Thousands gathered inside to see what had been billed as "the future of policing in the digital age." As press, I was prohibited from entering, but from a number of nearby locations, I met with attendees who told me what was being sold within. And I learned that AI is threatening to seize the very heart of policing in America. The promise of AI at this year's International Association of Chief
Get smart on it
Tech companies are selling artificial intelligence tools to police departments, marketing them as ways to automate routine tasks and help officers make better decisions in the field. These AI products include facial-recognition cameras, license plate readers, report-writing tools, and decision-assist platforms that aggregate data from multiple sources. The concern is that while previous policing technology experiments failed to deliver on promises of unbiased decision-making, police departments now lack comprehensive federal oversight or industry standards to verify whether these new AI products actually work as advertised or could erode transparency and accountability in law enforcement.
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