Las Vegas Sheriff tells a16z partners what's next on his wish list: AI for bodycams
Vegas police received funding for tech like drones and license plate readers from Ben Horowitz. Now it wants AI to go through police footage.
The city’s Sheriff Kevin McMahill said on a podcast with Horowitz and partner Marc Andreessen that he wants to use AI to blur faces or obscure sensitive information from body camera footage. McMahill also said he wants to use AI to help officers sift through the reams of information they receive when they subpoena cell phone tower data during investigations. “I really believe that some of this AI here in the new future can have tremendous impact on what has caused significant challenge for me as the Sheriff,” McMahill said.
#police #lasvegas #sheriff #bodycam #ai #benhorowitz #marcandreeson
The giant Silicon Valley venture firm released the episode on Monday, just a few weeks after TechCrunch revealed that Horowitz has been financing the Vegas police department’s purchasing of a number of a16z portfolio companies’ products. Emails TechCrunch received in a public records request also showed Horowitz has helped make decisions about the rollout of some of these technologies.
The relationship startled a number of experts and advocates who follow police accountability and surveillance technology that TechCrunch spoke to. But Horowitz and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) only intend to continue – and deepen – that relationship, according to the podcast episode.
“We’re not going to stop” funding purchases, Horowitz said.
“There’s no doubt about it there’ll be a slower implementation of these types of programs across the United States, they’re just not going to be able to get to them as rapidly as we are,” McMahill said. “But we’re going to prove it’s going to work, and I think more and more municipalities will find the people that are like you.”
The episode only lightly touched on how LVMPD is using some of the technologies, like drones from Skydio and license plate-reading cameras from Flock Safety, both a16z portfolio companies. Horowitz has had conversations with LVMPD about at least four others, TechCrunch revealed earlier this month. The LVMPD did not respond to a request for comment.