After I retired from the Navy, I spent 4 years as a firefighter/paramedic and then 2 more years as just a paramedic working in a fairly large city in Virginia (Norfolk). It was a change of pace from my previous life in the military, and I'm glad I was able to do it.

While there were many positives and negatives, one thing I learned is how overused/abused the 911 system is, and how often (in no small part because of this abuse), the "really" bad guys get away. To put things in perspective, I'd say we averaged about 15-20 calls per day in a 24-hour shift. Conservatively, maybe 2-3 were "911 worthy" - this is not to say these other people didn't need help or weren't sick, however we'd get an exorbitant number of calls for stomach aches, chronic pain, homeless people just wanting a free meal or shelter, sore throats, coughs, etc. Consequently, we were absolutely worn out and certainly not performing at our best, and for the actual emergencies, people often had to wait for another nearby ambulance to respond (and for these true emergencies, a couple minutes can be life or death). I was never a police officer, but we often responded to calls with law enforcement, and they struggled with the same problems.

We also responded to a lot of car accidents. Often these were minor, and people simply wanted to go to the hospital in an ambulance because they believed it would strengthen their insurance claim; however sometimes they were really serious, and in the serious ones, it was often because someone was egregiously breaking the law - driving very drunk or very high, or driving 30 mph+ over the speed limit. I can't tell you how many dead people I've had to pull out of vehicles and do CPR on (which was almost always pointless when people go into traumatic arrest after losing a lot of blood) after they were clearly flying on the interstate or even a residential road.

I don't remember this being a problem in Raleigh (granted, I lived there 20 years ago and I wasn't as sensitive to the problem back then), but it's a huge problem in Norfolk and in other crowded/poor cities. I drive on the interstate everyday, and I'd say that at least 2-3 times a week I get passed by someone going well over 100 mph weaving in and out of traffic - basically well on their way to killing themselves or someone else.

So to the point of this post.... many of us have ring doorbells, and dash cams are quickly becoming more popular. What if all these dash cams were connected to a central network for each city, and some kind of AI was able to recognize egregious speeding or erratic driving, pinpoint the exact location and license plate, and dispatch officers to that driver (instead of having officers sit on the side of the road and wait, usually pulling people over for fairly minor infractions).

Obviously, there are privacy concerns, however (my personal view) I feel you lose any right to privacy once you decide to travel on public streets. Plus, (ideally), users would be able to opt in or out, so it would be completely voluntary if your data was fed to law enforcement. I suspect this would get intoxicated drivers, reckless drivers, amber alerts, stolen cars, and who knows what else off the streets and be a huge net positive for public safety.

I searched AI and it doesn't sound that there is anything like this yet, however I don't think it's a technological stretch, and it's not entirely different than different jurisdictions and even genealogy databases sharing DNA profiles. I'd love to hear opinions, either for or against.

6/13/2026 5:18:43 PM

Tldr version

Quote :

"A retired Navy veteran and former firefighter/paramedic argues that emergency services are often overwhelmed by non-emergency calls, while dangerous driving remains a major public-safety issue. He proposes an opt-in AI-powered network of dash cams and security cameras to identify reckless drivers, assist law enforcement, and improve public safety, despite potential privacy concerns."

Isn't that like planitir? I am all for it

6/13/2026 5:50:00 PM

Only if it can also give tickets to coal rollers and various idiots with heavily modded trucks and / or annoying exhaust tuning.

6/13/2026 6:19:17 PM

Quote :

"Obviously, there are privacy concerns, however (my personal view) I feel you lose any right to privacy once you decide to travel on public streets."

Yeah, except these cameras see into people's houses and property. Also, there isn't just some strict divide between private and public property. For example, you can't sit naked in your yard in full view of your neighbors despite owning it.

Privacy is an important consideration, especially when there isn't an alternative to life in most of America without owning a car. It's not like it's some luxury, it's a necessity.

6/13/2026 10:35:39 PM

I'd rather accept a higher level of danger than a lower level of rights.

6/14/2026 8:11:35 AM

fuck all the way off with this bullshit

6/14/2026 7:24:28 PM

isn't this exactly what https://www.flocksafety.com/ does?

6/15/2026 11:11:56 AM

^ That was my first thought.

I like your crowdsourced - AI - public safety network idea.
I see people weaving in and out of traffic all the time that cut people off and never get caught. Or at least I don't see them pulled over later on down the road. I've noticed an uptick in distracted drivers lately that can't maintain their lane. If we can present dash cam data that shows them crossing the middle line more than once, and shows a clear tag, then I'm all for snitching on them.

6/15/2026 11:23:44 AM

bunch of damn Gomers running around screaming "citizen's arrest!"

6/15/2026 11:34:21 AM

there's an app that all the fucking pearl clutchers in NYC use that does this already called Citizen

[Edited on June 15, 2026 at 4:38 PM. Reason : https://citizen.com/]

6/15/2026 4:37:54 PM

Doesn't the Citizen app use existing 911 dispatch data to report all of the incidents rather than user-reported incidents? I will see some nearby incident pop up and it will say "hey, go livestream this!" but it's usually after 911 has already been called about it

[Edited on June 15, 2026 at 10:53 PM. Reason : .]

6/15/2026 10:34:27 PM

Only if it works by X number of downvotes within Y amount of time rather than single reports

6/16/2026 10:16:42 AM

^^ no clue. my pearls roll freely about, to and fro

6/16/2026 10:32:14 AM