The Utah Department of Public Safety requested $2 million from state legislators this summer for a surveillance program that uses artificial intelligence to gather social media posts, traffic cameras and other resources. The company Banjo designed the program to be used in real-time emergencies. The Utah Attorney General’s Office used it for training in an AMBER Alert situation. Legislators expressed concern about overreach and privacy violations as they considered results of testing with the state’s Department of Transportation and consider expansion of the technology to other areas of state operations.

Philadelphia police officers are now using cameras with Artificial Intelligence (AI) to solve crimes, and they believe this same technology could be very effective during an AMBER Alert. The dash-mounted cameras can identify a specific vehicle and license plate number. The AI technology can also be used to identify faces, weapons or certain behaviors on surveillance videos.