![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/ElectricEye.jpg\")
A modern security camera attached to a building\u2019s exterior wall oversees an entrance area. Credit: Shutterstock \/ CC7<\/p>\nA modern security camera attached to a building\u2019s exterior wall oversees an entrance area. Credit: Shutterstock \/ CC7<\/p>\n
Bad Takes is a column of opinion and analysis.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When Police Chief William McManus appeared at City Council\u2019s budget meeting last month, he tried to justify the purchase of AI software as something which would improve efficiency by helping officers with time-consuming reports.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese emerging technologies are about one thing: helping officers spend less time on paperwork and more time protecting our community,\u201d the chief said<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Unfortunately, the only randomized control trial to test the time-saving benefits of AI on police reports suggests the outlook isn\u2019t promising. Published this spring in Applied Police Briefings<\/a>, the analysis looked at a medium-sized police department that agreed to participate for more than a full year. The principal finding?\u00a0<\/p>\n AI didn\u2019t significantly shorten time spent on paperwork.<\/p>\n \u201c[D]espite commercial claims that this technology will dramatically decrease the time officers spend manually writing initial reports, no experimental test of those claims has been reported to date,\u201d the study\u2019s five authors, who have backgrounds in law enforcement, criminology and police-community relations, wrote. \u201cAs is often the case, rapid adoption of police technology is often done in advance of the empirical record on the ability of the tool to achieve its aims and avoid unintended consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n So why didn\u2019t AI save time?\u00a0<\/p>\n For one, many agencies use boilerplate templates for reports anyway, and if AI still requires officers to fill in the blanks, how\u2019s that much different? We already have spellchecking technology. Not to mention, streamlining the narrative-writing process doesn\u2019t necessarily cut down on meat-and-potatoes data entry like including every witness a cop spoke to or all the evidence in the officer\u2019s possession. Many workers today waste time meticulously going over AI-written responses when we probably could have written the damn thing ourselves \u2014\u00a0and just as fast.<\/p>\n AI-assisted police reports were only one of the emerging technologies council heard about at the budget meeting under the goal of \u201cproactive policing.\u201d Indeed, even the fire department got in on the action.<\/p>\n Fire officials outlined their desire to buy two tethered drones and six free-flying units for $291,000. They promised the devices would help with search and rescue, hazmat assistance sizing up wildfires and something far more vague: \u201cspecial events.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Could that include drone surveillance of street festivals such as Fiesta?<\/p>\n \u201cWhat entities are allowed to access this data?\u201d asked interim District 2 Councilman Leo Castillo-Anguiano, referring to the information the drones would collect.\u00a0<\/p>\n City Chief Information Officer Craig Hopkins stepped in to assuage privacy concerns.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAll data is city-owned,\u201d he said, adding that \u201cvendors are under contract with us, and the IT shop is responsible for supporting them to make sure that that privacy stays in place.\u201d<\/p>\n However, the discussion left the exact terms of those contracts unexplored. What if Immigration and Customs Enforcement<\/a> calls up and asks for SAPD\u2019s and the fire department\u2019s camera footage, for example?<\/p>\n Of course, data breaches are an always expected surprise as well. In 2021<\/a>, 1.8 terabytes of helicopter and drone video, mostly captured by the Dallas Police Department, magically appeared on the Distributed Denial of Secrets website, a WikiLeaks-like outlet that publishes hacked materials. The 600 hours of footage included not only mass public gatherings, but, as D Magazine reported at the time<\/a>, everyday people unloading cars in front of their houses or relaxing in their backyards.<\/p>\n McManus told the council that SAPD\u2019s drone program been in use \u201cfor quite a while\u201d and \u201cvery, very frequently\u201d at large events, around barricades and in traffic investigations.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll expand it to the point where we\u2019re satisfied that we have what we need,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n If what\u2019s needed is for the populace to feel we\u2019re always being watched, then mission accomplished.<\/p>\n Technically, Centro San Antonio \u2014\u00a0formerly the Downtown Owners Association \u2014\u00a0and city government are still assessing the one-year pilot of \u201cadvanced camera monitoring\u201d in the downtown corridor, according a slide in McManus\u2019 presentation.\u00a0<\/p>\n To his credit, when questioned by District 7 Councillor Marina Alderete Gavito, the chief revealed that \u201cthose cameras downtown and the AI capability they were supposed to have did not function as they were supposed to.\u201d<\/p>\n McManus also said he opposed installing facial recognition technology<\/a> on the equipment, which is laudable if true. Nevertheless, he added that \u201dthe plan is to expand the camera system to a much broader area, even if we\u2019re not powering it by AI.\u201d<\/p>\n District 5 Councilwoman Teri Castillo struck a more skeptical tone.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI do have concern in terms of just the liberty to exist in society without having your face scanned and monitored, uploaded to a database that can potentially be monitored, and how we may be invading on people\u2019s privacy in practice with these efficiency tools,\u201d Castillo said.\u00a0<\/p>\n She also raised the possibility of AI-written police reports revealing personally identifying information about victims of domestic violence.<\/p>\n To Castillo\u2019s point \u2014\u00a0especially her use of the phrase \u201dthe liberty to exist\u201d \u2014\u00a0the above-cited study on law enforcement agencies\u2019 use of AI concluded with a note of caution.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAs the inevitable tide of AI-assisted technologies comes to policing\u2019s shores, it is essential to approach the widespread adoption of AI technologies with a critical eye,\u201d the authors noted.<\/p>\n In the wake of President Donald Trump\u2019s militarized takeover of DC<\/a>, cities such as San Antonio would do well to choose caution over panopticism<\/a>.<\/p>\n Subscribe to SA Current newsletters.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Follow us:\u00a0Apple News<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Google News<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0NewsBreak<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Reddit<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Instagram<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Facebook\u00a0<\/a>| Twitter<\/a>\u00a0| Or sign up for our\u00a0RSS Feed<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Related Stories<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\tRight-wing pundits and politicians have shown no qualms about deflecting blame when it comes to the tragedy.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\tPassage of Trump\u2019s \u2018Big, Beautiful Bill\u2019 is evidence that a \u2018strong Republican Party\u2019 isn\u2019t in the best interest of most Americans.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\tEven some South Texas Republicans are pushing back at the roundups, which aren\u2019t just capturing criminals but people who pose no safety threat.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n This article appears in Sep 3-17, 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n \t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"Bad](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/shutterstock_2651130311.webp.webp\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"Bad](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/oshua_sukoff.webp\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"Trump\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/courtesy_photo_dhs_copy.webp\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n