City Detect — Dallas Puts AI Cameras on Trash Trucks to Flag Illegal Dumping and Blight

Dallas sought a way to systematically identify illegal dumping, graffiti, overgrown vegetation and deteriorating structures across the city using its existing sanitation-truck routes.

Use AI-linked cameras mounted on collection trucks to flag blight and dumping for code-compliance follow-up, with human staff reviewing every detection before any notice or citation.

In December 2025, Dallas City Council approved a three-year, $2.556 million contract (about $852,000 a year) with City Detect Inc. Two cameras were fitted to each of 50 brush/bulky-waste collection trucks, photographing properties on routine collection runs roughly every 30 days. Computer-vision software flags illegal dumping, graffiti, overgrown vegetation and deteriorating structures, assigning a 'blight score' from 1 to 4; faces and license plates are automatically blurred, and Dallas code-compliance staff review every AI-flagged detection before any notice or citation is issued.

By September 2026, reporting put the number of flagged properties at more than 21,000, with about 1,800 resulting in courtesy notices rather than formal citations. The same vendor has run a similar system for Columbia, South Carolina since 2024, with comparable systems in Tacoma, Washington and San Jose, California.

The programme has generated substantial detection volume in its first months, but independent reporting has not yet evaluated whether flagged properties translate into a measurable drop in dumping, blight or code-violation backlogs, and at least one council member has already proposed cutting its funding.