The Las Vegas Police Department has received funding for technology such as drones and license plate readers from Andreessen Horowitz partner Ben Horowitz. Will it be on your wish list next? Artificial intelligence analyzes police footage.
Sheriff Kevin McMahill said on a podcast with Horowitz and his partner Marc Andreessen that he wants to use AI to blur faces and hide sensitive information from body camera footage. McMahill also said he wants to use AI to help police officers sift through the large amount of information they receive when subpoenaing cell phone tower data during investigations. “I truly believe that in the new future, some of this AI could have a tremendous impact on the issues that have posed significant challenges for me as sheriff,” McMahill said.
The Silicon Valley venture giant announced the episode on Monday, just weeks after TechCrunch revealed that Horowitz was funding the Las Vegas Police Department's purchase of numerous A16Z portfolio companies' products. Emails received by TechCrunch in a public records request also show that Horowitz helped make decisions about the implementation of some of these technologies.
The relationship surprised many police accountability and surveillance technology experts and advocates TechCrunch spoke to. But Horowitz and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) intend to continue and deepen that relationship, according to the podcast episode.
Horowitz said he has “no intention of stopping” from buying funds.
“There's no question that there will be delays in implementing these types of programs across the country, but we won't be able to implement them as quickly as we can,” McMahill said. “But we're going to prove that it works, and I think more municipalities will find people like you.”
In this episode, we only briefly touched on how LVMPD uses some of the technology, including drones from Skydio and license plate reading cameras from Flock Safety, both of which are a16z portfolio companies. TechCrunch revealed earlier this month that Horowitz had been in conversations with LVMPD about at least four other people. LVMPD did not respond to requests for comment.
Andreessen was interested in seeing what more Silicon Valley companies could do for the sector.
“I wish our company could come up with technology ideas, but for some kind of pressing problem, our wish list is like, 'Wow, I wish we could do X, but we haven't come up with it yet.' There's something I don't know how to do yet,'' he asked McMahill.
McMahill responded by emphasizing how AI can help the department. He has set up a 12-person squad to respond to public records requests and spends too much time looking at body camera footage to make sure the entire face is blurred. he said.
“The development of that technology is going to be that difficult to get us to a place where we don't have to have real cops do the heavy lifting to remove faces, addresses, names, what's said in them.” Not,” he said in the video. Said.
Other efforts are already underway to incorporate AI into police work. One startup, Abel, raised $5 million last month to develop AI that combs through body camera footage and generates police reports. Police technology giant Axon has also released a suite of AI tools, one of which identifies objects in body camera footage to speed up the editing process.
McMahill also explained that during an investigation, LVMPD detectives may subpoena cell phone tower records to understand where a suspect was at the time of a particular crime. But police often return vast records that are difficult to parse.
“If we could get to a place where that technology could take, sometimes literally, the millions of cell phone numbers that are out there and kind of look at it and give us a report like, ‘Hey. 'These seven phone numbers' were present in all of these specific locations at the time and date you're looking for,' which will help you develop leads,'' he said.
Horowitz responded by saying that applying AI to cell tower data would be a “very easy solution for us,” and his partner Andreessen said that applying AI to cell tower data would be a “very easy solution for us,” and his partner Andreessen said that applying AI to cell tower data would be a “very easy solution for us.” Developing technology to scrub the face from scratches “should be very easy,” he said.