Jersey City plans to use artificial intelligence (AI)-based technology to modernize its systems citywide in an “ethical” way, likely starting with local police departments, Mayor James Solomon and Acting Director of Public Safety Anthony Ambrose have confirmed.
Dan Israel/Hudson County View
“We’re looking at it,” Ambrose told HCV and other reporters at a news conference about police restructuring, responding to a question about whether the modernization of public safety would include the use of AI programs and systems in the JCPD and the Bureau of Public Safety.
Solomon then confirmed that the entire city, not just JCPD and the Department of Public Safety, is considering the use of AI-based technology.
He said his administration will soon form a committee to look at how to best leverage AI to not only make Jersey City safer, but also streamline other municipal functions.
“We are also working on a broad city-wide committee, which we plan to establish soon, that will provide direction to the city on how to use AI to make the city safer and improve city processes,” Solomon told HCV.
Ambrose said the JCPD and the entire Department of Public Safety are in need of modernization, and he photographed a $222 million public safety annex that he called “beautiful,” but had little modern technology or manuals and lacked record-keeping of performance data and other key metrics.
Amid discussions about how to integrate “cutting-edge” technology into public safety systems, Ambrose said the use of newer innovations, such as AI, is being evaluated in certain situations.
Solomon recognized the need to use AI in a responsible manner amid growing criticism and concern from local to federal levels over issues such as data privacy and job separation.
He said the city would establish “appropriate ethical guidelines for the use of AI to ensure that its use is done in the right way.”
City officials reassured HCV that the commission will analyze the application of AI not only to police departments, but to any aspect or function of the municipality it deems applicable.
The idea is to gather feedback from stakeholders on the commission to guide how the city can deploy the use of AI in an amicable manner.
However, whatever AI systems are purchased or contracted, steps will be taken to ensure that as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other federal immigration enforcement agencies continue to utilize similar AI systems to build surveillance equipment, they are done with vendors that protect the information entered and data collected from being shared with them.
In any case, the federal government already has access to many similar data flows through information reported to states and other agencies.
According to the Guardian, DHS is currently funding an AI platform that will ingest all 911 call data nationwide and build “geospatial heat maps” to “predict incident trends.”
Although unrelated, it’s very similar to what Jersey City is trying to do as it needs to modernize its police force, move to an information-based model of policing, and ensure that AI is used appropriately in all cases.
