Councilmember, residents push back on AI ‘blight scores' given to thousands of homes

The useful part

"Raise your hand if you have a blight score…anyone have a blight score yet?" a resident said. "For those at home, local NBC has just reported that our city trash trucks now have surveillance cameras focused on your house. Your house." More than 1,500 comments were posted on NBC 5's social videos on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube combined, with many viewers questioning the city's motives.

How it works

• The cameras detect possible code violations and assign properties what the system calls a "blight score." At a Dallas City Council meeting Wednesday and on social media, some residents and viewers...
• "This is actually frightening and who defines what's blight on your home?" one commenter wrote.
• Others said they worry the city could use the cameras to increase code enforcement fines.
• Dallas City Councilmember Chad West proposed a budget amendment this week to stop funding the three-year, $2.5 million camera contract.
• "My primary concern is that this could end up being inadvertently a tax on the poor," West said.

What to take from it

West said he worries the cameras could lead to more code citations in places such as Southern Dallas neighborhoods, where many homeowners are struggling financially. "I don't think that's the intent of anybody on council to select a part of the city and punish...

Details worth keeping

Anything just to make money off of somebody," a resident said.