The Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office will use artificial intelligence tools to investigate online child exploitation, part of a growing trend in North Texas law enforcement agencies turning to technology to manage increasingly complex cases.
agreement Approved by the Tarrant County Commissioners, the Sheriff’s Office will have access to two AI platforms developed by: Gracie and Transaction Intercept. street gracea nonprofit organization that works with law enforcement agencies across the country. The group also receives support from Microsoft.
According to an agreement with Tarrant County. street gracethis tool analyzes publicly available online data and identifies patterns that may be related to child exploitation and human trafficking. Officials say the software is intended to help investigators sift through large amounts of information more efficiently, not to replace traditional police work.
The use of AI in law enforcement has increased in recent years. Dallas police already use facial recognition software to help investigate serious crimes. Meanwhile, Fort Worth police are using automatic license plate reading software to identify wanted vehicles.
Howard Williams, a Texas State University criminal justice professor and former police chief, said he doesn’t think relying solely on AI-generated findings will hold up in court.
“Just because the computer said so is rarely a good enough reason,” he says. “You still have to go find witnesses to verify it, you have to find documents, you have to find supporting evidence. Without that, you don’t have a good case.”
Williams said the distinction reflects how prosecutors and law enforcement have historically treated new technology.
“When new technology comes along, sometimes it provides great investigative leads that can be used as evidence in their own right,” Williams said. “But like any new technology, while they may suggest something to us, we need to verify it in the real world to prove the case.”
At the Jan. 7 Commissioners Court meeting where the agreement was approved, county officials emphasized that the software relies solely on open-source intelligence and does not access or store county data.
The sheriff’s office also said these tools will primarily be used as a deterrent to alert people to potentially harmful behavior online and direct individuals to resources, rather than automatically generating criminal cases.
The Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office declined an interview to discuss the software.
The agreement also includes a non-disclosure agreement between the company and the sheriff’s office, which requires the agency to appeal any Freedom of Information requests about the platform that could reveal “classified information.”
According to the NDA, the company considers all information about Gracie and Transaction Intercept to be proprietary, including “information about how and by whom these platforms and components are used.”
But as Williams explains, that broad confidentiality claim could face limitations under the Texas Public Records Act.
“The attorney general will probably have to make some sort of determination on that,” Williams said. “Someone is going to ask for that information. It’s up to the attorney general to decide whether they can get it.”
Commissioner Alisa Simmons, who voted against the agreement, said she supports efforts to protect children, but expressed concerns about oversight, transparency and how new technology is introduced into the criminal justice system.
“Our responsibility is always to balance public safety with constitutional protections,” Simmons said. “In this case, protecting children from exploitation is one of the most important duties governments have, but that duty does not cancel our responsibility to protect civil liberties.”
Simmons said he is also concerned about approving a platform that has not gone through a competitive bidding process or been evaluated alongside similar tools.
“I take child exploitation very seriously,” Simmons said. “At the same time, we want to ensure that people are protected from false identification and unintended consequences.”
Williams said civil liability concerns become real whenever new technology is introduced to police departments, but lawsuits alone are unlikely to stop police agencies from adopting Al tools.
The bigger question is not whether a lawsuit will be filed, but how courts will ultimately define permissible use, he said.
“Whether we win or not is another matter,” he said. “At some point, the courts will step in and set limits.”
Experts say versions of the software aimed at reducing workloads have been used by law enforcement agencies for years.
Corey Clark, associate professor of computer science at Southern Methodist University and associate director of research at SMU Guildhall, said tools to help analyze data, look for trends and connect information have long been part of police work. What has also changed recently is that AI has become visible and interactive.
“Today, when people hear the word ‘AI,’ they often think of large-scale language models and chatbots,” Clark said. “But finding routes with GPS is AI, and people use it every day, too.”
Clark said one of the main reasons agencies are turning to Al tools is the sheer volume of information investigators are expected to work with.
“We met with the North Texas Human Trafficking Task Force and talked to them about having something like 70,000 pages of documents in one of their case files,” Clark said. “How do you expect someone to go through 70,000 pages of information manually? It’s starting to become an intractable problem, and that’s just one case.”
As AI becomes more commonplace, public opinion will likely determine what tools are used. Clark said public perception influences how law enforcement agencies openly adopt certain technologies.
“Negative connotations expressed in the public sphere will likely deter the deployment of large-scale standalone AI packages,” he said. “But AI integration will not stop.”
County officials say the purpose of the agreement is to give law enforcement new tools to protect children while still relying on human judgment.
For now, the county says the AI platform will be used as an investigative aid, rather than a replacement for traditional law enforcement, as the region continues to explore how technology fits into public safety.
As law enforcement agencies across North Texas continue to consider AI tools, experts say transparency and clear limits are important to maintain public trust.
“There’s a lot of great opportunity,” Clark said. “If we want to keep people and children safe, we need highly adaptive and automated systems.”
Emmanuel Rivas Valenzuela is a breaking news reporter for KERA. Any tips? Email Emmanuel erivas@kera.org.
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