EP. 6 | When AI Starts Policing You - Surveillance Is Not Safety

DeKalb County has invested millions of dollars into a new Real-Time Crime Center and expanded Flock Safety technology across the county, with the goal of using cameras, license plate readers, data analytics, drones, and artificial intelligence to improve public safety. But does more surveillance automatically mean a safer community? In this episode of AI Unhinged, the conversation gets personal. Dr. Calvin Lawrence, artificial intelligence expert and former CTO of Ethical and Responsible AI and Smart Cities at IBM, joins the discussion to break down what can happen when AI enters the world of policing. Drawing from his research into AI, surveillance, and law enforcement systems, Dr. Lawrence explains how historical policing data can become the foundation for new algorithms and why existing bias can potentially be amplified rather than eliminated. The episode explores some difficult questions: How does AI actually work inside a Real-Time Crime Center? Can increased surveillance create a policing feedback loop where communities that are already heavily policed continue generating the data that tells algorithms to police them even more? What happens when a license plate is misread, a watchlist is outdated, or an AI system identifies the wrong vehicle? Should an AI alert ever be enough for police to stop, pursue, search, or arrest someone, or should it only be treated as an investigative lead that requires independent verification? Who has access to the data being collected, how long is it retained, and can information originally gathered for one purpose eventually be used for something entirely different? And perhaps most importantly, who is responsible when the technology gets it wrong? Dr. Lawrence argues that AI can be a valuable tool for helping law enforcement investigate and solve crimes, but technology alone cannot replace transparency, independent oversight, accountability, human judgment, and protections for the civil rights of the people being monitored. This is not simply a conversation about whether AI is good or bad. It is a conversation about what happens when artificial intelligence moves out of our phones and computer screens and begins influencing decisions that can have real consequences in the physical world. If AI is going to help keep communities safe, who is making sure the AI itself is safe? LEARN MORE ABOUT DR. LAWRENCE: calvindlawrence.com FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM: @aiunhingedpodcast PRODUCED BY: ORGANIZED MOVEMENTS