How artificial intelligence helps cops, makes roads safer
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - In Georgia and South Carolina, artificial intelligence is working to make the roads safer while also helping local law enforcement agencies.
According to their website, Rekor Systems was founded in 2017 and they work to stay patched in with transportation departments, law enforcement, and federal agencies.
Driving through every intersection in town you’ve probably noticed traffic cameras pointed in every direction. Rekor Systems is taking advantage of this technology across the country.
“I think that’s how you save lives,” said Rekor Systems Vice President Mike Dunbar.
The A.I. system is used in both Georgia and South Carolina by using camera systems to monitor roads, traffic, and construction in real-time.
“It’s a video stream across multiple lanes of traffic. The A.I. Machine Learning code is doing the processing right there at the edge and deriving all kinds of intelligence and analytics and then feeding that to the appropriate person,” said Dunbar.
New technology from Rekor Systems can count cars, determines the speed of each car, and what type of car it is. This saves lives as the old way of putting a rubber tube across a busy highway to count cars or standing alongside the road making notes often leads to those workers being stuck on the roadway.
It eliminates the hazard.
The A.I. system also breaks down driver habits. It can alert Department of Transportation workers or law enforcement when severe swerving or breaking happens, indicating an accident before a 911 call is processed.
“In states where we’ve deployed our technology, we’ve seen demonstrable improvement in emergency service response time. We can be 10, 15, 20 minutes faster than a 911 call,” said Dunbar.
This A.I. technology also counts electric vehicles and that is important because roads are maintained and improved with taxes on gasoline.
Electric vehicles do not use gas so it’s a good way for towns, cities, and states to determine how many electric vehicles are on the road and how to tax the owners in the future so they can pay their fair share to maintain the roads.
Another big part of the technology is helping law enforcement with traffic control and solving crimes, almost like flock cameras. It helps reduce the number of one-on-one interactions deputies are having with drivers.
In states like Oklahoma, this system is used through local police departments and the District Attorney’s Office. The system notifies drivers of infractions through the mail.
“The goal here is to essentially divert that infraction out of the court system. If you pay a reduced fine and prove you have insurance within a certain timeframe, then you avoid court action. So it’s great for the state from a revenue perspective,” said Dunbar.
As for privacy concerns, Department of Transportation workers are not keeping records of license plates. Law enforcement will have access to license plate data, but it will not be stored.
“Absolutely no plate information, no personal information gets stored or ed along in that scenario,” said Dunbar.
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