Transparent AI in Government: Building Trust Through Technology

The City Detect team is excited to welcome Cathedral City, CA; Lancaster, CA; Rancho Cordova, CA; and Prescott Valley, AZ to our community of innovative partners. As City Detect partners with more cities across the country, one priority remains constant for both our clients and our team: helping cities reduce blight, remove public nuisances, and beautify their communities. From abandoned vehicles and graffiti to illegal dumping and debris, our platform empowers municipalities to take action faster, with fewer resources and greater impact.

While transparency, accountability, and privacy remain foundational to how we build and deploy our technology, they serve a larger goal—supporting public service and fostering trust as cities modernize. We’re proud to help communities address real-world challenges like staffing shortages and compliance gaps, all while promoting cleaner, safer neighborhoods for the people who call them home.

AI That Works for Communities

City Detect is proud to be known as The Good AI™—technology designed not just to be smart, but to do good. That means aligning our platform with the mission of public service: helping local governments do more for their communities, without compromising values or trust. Our AI platform empowers code enforcement, housing, and public works teams to:

• Detect signs of urban blight, litter, debris, and graffiti – conditions that may need attention

• Prioritize workloads based on real-world evidence and community priorities

• Deliver services more equitably across neighborhoods by leveraging citywide data

We provide insights, not enforcement. Every decision stays with city staff, ensuring transparency and accountability remain in human hands.

Built for Security, Backed by Trust

As we expand, welcoming forward-thinking cities, we continue to prioritize the secure and responsible use of AI. City Detect was designed from the ground up with safeguards that reflect the serious responsibility of serving democratic institutions:

• No collection of sensitive personally identifiable information

• All data is processed securely and stored via encrypted cloud-based infrastructure

• SOC 2 certified for rigorous data privacy and operational integrity

These are not just technical specs—they’re reflections of our core values: innovation, integrity, and impact.

Building Capacity Without Overreach

In communities from South Carolina to California, our tools are helping cities do more with less. Whether it’s accelerating housing assessments to meet state mandates or replacing resource-heavy manual inspections with fast, data-driven reviews, City Detect boosts the capacity of public servants without compromising community relationships.

Our work with cities begins with simple goals: Detecting visible issues more quickly, responding to resident complaints more equitably, and supporting citizen education and voluntary compliance. What emerges is a stronger, more responsive public service, guided by data, powered by PASS AI, and grounded in trust.

A Model for Ethical Public Sector AI

City Detect is building more than a platform. We’re building a future where AI empowers public servants to focus on what matters most: meaningful engagement with the people they serve. Our technology accelerates the detection of visible property conditions, but the interpretation and action remain in human hands. This “human-in-the-loop” design is not only best practice in ethical AI, but it’s essential to how we define The Good AI™.

Real people review every flagged condition on our platform. These code enforcement officers, housing officials, and city staff know their communities better than anyone and were entrusted by them. These are the bridge builders who explain next steps, offer support, and strengthen neighborhood trust. City Detect makes more space for human connection by streamlining the technical tasks and freeing up time for public servants to do the empathetic work that only they can do.

AI can make city teams more efficient, yes—but more importantly, it can help them be more present, more informed, and more responsive. That’s the real impact of AI for communities: giving public servants the tools to serve equitably, thoughtfully, and proactively, not just by property, but by neighborhood, by family, and by need.

Our commitment to responsible AI doesn’t end with product design. As proud members of the GovAI Coalition, we’re actively shaping national standards for ethical, transparent technology in government. Coalitions like GovAI are vital because they convene cities, technologists, and policy leaders around shared values: fairness, accountability, and equity in AI use.

Learn More

In our blog post, “Reducing Bias in Public Sector AI,” Jonathan Richardson, City Detect’s head of AI, outlines our approach to AI ethics, including population-level data to human-reviewed detections. Our approach reflects what we’ve always believed: that AI should never operate without oversight. Every algorithmic decision remains grounded in local context and community values.

At City Detect, we don’t just deliver detections. We deliver clarity so that public servants can deliver on their promises. That’s how AI becomes a tool for equity, not just efficiency. And that’s the future we’re working toward, with every city we serve.

Our Commitment

City Detect was built to serve. Every line of code, every deployment, every customer conversation is guided by our belief that technology should empower local governments to better serve their communities—securely, ethically, and with respect. Because the future of urban management shouldn’t just be smarter—it should be fairer, clearer, and more inclusive.

Check out our Responsible AI Strategy