How police are using AI to watch us

If you are familiar with 1984 by George Orwell, you know how surveillance is a key metric for controlling a population. If you walk through any major city, you are almost certainly on camera somewhere.

It’s a bit wild to think of it that way. But now, there are products for camera surveillance systems for your homes and cars. This means that you are probably on camera even walking around your neighbourhood. Sometimes, this fact is a bit funny - especially with those TikToks from the ring cameras.

But with something called Fusus AI - constant surveillance will be a bit scarier.

Soon enough, all these surveillance cameras will be linked, and these independent cameras will work together. 

We need to start with how things currently operate. If a crime happens and the police need security footage, they must ask. In America, the equipment owner is not obligated to give over that data, so sometimes a warrant is required. This can create a lag time between crimes committed, evidence collected, and action taken. 

So enter Fusus.

They had the idea of creating a network of all of these disparate cameras. If they were all linked, you could scan them all simultaneously. And with added AI capabilities, you could use the cameras to track specific people, cars, and items in real-time.

If this feels like the beginning of an episode of Black Mirror, it is.

Just travel to Starkville, Mississippi. It might seem like a small college town in the United States, but it is one of the first towns in America to adopt this technology early on.  

See, Fusus isn’t selling the cameras. They are selling the technology to link them together. Not only does it link them, but it can also turn your run-of-the-mill camera into an AI eye in the sky. So when the Starkville PD started working with Fusus, they started mapping out camera placements and how to best use the technology - including in student apartment buildings.

In essence, AI-powered cameras monitor this town in real time. The cameras are all mapped out, and cops can get instant access to the feed.

If you dig a little deeper - you’ll soon find that these cameras allegedly have access to facial recognition. Some police have mentioned that it does have the technology in it - but that they will refrain from using it. (Name another time a government refused to use technology to monitor its citizens better).

But Fusus has never publicly clarified this point. A report also states that the Fusus technology has license plate tracking, meaning they can track almost all movements. 

But this is where it gets interesting. For the technology to create this camera system, it must have cameras to use. So private businesses and residents can go online and register their cameras. They currently have access to 480 cameras and counting from people who believe in the project.

Proponents of this level of surveillance have claimed that it will make us safer. And the better technology gets, the more benefits we will see.

But the opposition is just as fierce in its condemnation. They claim that we have become too casual about surveillance. A city with AI cameras reporting straight to the police would be akin to living in a panopticon (look it up; it's super interesting). 

As we continue to learn in a world hyperconnected through social media - we will soon have to live in a world with massive systems of surveillance. And these pieces of technology are just being improved with AI-powered systems. So is this the first act in an episode of Black Mirror? Or is this a way to keep people safe and stop crime before people lose their lives?