Las Vegas law enforcement has obtained financial backing for technology such as drones, systems for reading vehicle license plates, and other tools from Andreessen Horowitz associate Ben Horowitz. What’s next on their agenda? Incorporating artificial intelligence to analyze police footage.

Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the city discussed on a podcast with Horowitz and co-partner Marc Andreessen his ambition to utilize AI for facial blurring and redacting sensitive sections from body cam recordings. McMahill also aims to leverage AI to assist officers in managing the vast quantities of data amassed when subpoenaing cell tower records during probes. “I am convinced some of this AI here in the near future can significantly influence issues that have complicated my job as the sheriff,” he expressed.

The major Silicon Valley investment company released the podcast episode on Monday, shortly after TechCrunch reported that Horowitz has been helping finance the department’s acquisition of several a16z portfolio company’s services. Communications obtained by TechCrunch through a public records request also suggested Horowitz had input in the execution of some of these systems.

The association alarmed various specialists and advocates who study police transparency and surveillance innovations, as noted by TechCrunch. Nonetheless, both Horowitz and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) plan to maintain — and intensify — their collaboration, as the podcast suggests.

“We won’t cease” backing purchases, Horowitz stated.

“There’s no question there’ll be a more gradual adoption of these sorts of initiatives across the nation; they just can’t implement them as swiftly as we can,” McMahill highlighted. “But we’re going to demonstrate it works, and I predict more municipalities will seek out individuals resembling you.”

During the episode, they barely covered the methods LVMPD employs to use some technology — like Skydio’s drones and Flock Safety’s license plate recognition cameras, both a16z investments. Earlier this month, TechCrunch uncovered Horowitz’s discussions with LVMPD about at least four additional items. The LVMPD did not comment on a request for feedback.

Andreessen was curious about more contributions the Silicon Valley firm’s affiliates might offer to the department.

“Hopefully our firms will find technologies, but what critical issues make you think: ‘Wow, I wish we could do X, and we haven’t figured out how to achieve it yet,’” he queried McMahill.

In his reply, McMahill stressed how AI could greatly assist the department. He noted a team of 12 dedicated personnel handles public records demands, spending excessive amounts of time reviewing body camera content to ensure complete blurring of faces.

“It doesn’t seem that complex to create a technology where actual officers aren’t needed for the monotonous task of erasing facial features, addresses, names, or any spoken content from the video,” he elaborated.

Other projects exist that are integrating AI into police operations already. Recently, a startup named Abel gathered $5 million to innovate AI capable of processing bodycam videos to draft police reports. Axon, a leading company in police technology, has introduced AI solutions that recognize objects in body cam footage to streamline the redaction operation.

Furthermore, McMahill explained that during some investigations, LVMPD officers may subpoena cellphone tower information to deduce a suspect’s whereabouts at the crime’s occurrence. The resulting large-scale data can be arduous to analyze.

“If technology could filter through sometimes millions of phone numbers present, and summarize by stating: ‘The following seven numbers appeared in all relevant locations on your specified date and time,’ it assists in forming leads,” he added.

Horowitz, in reply, deemed applying AI to tower data an “effortless task for us,” while his colleague Andreessen described creating technology for cleansing faces from footage as “remarkably simple.”

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