How America’s former ‘drug capital’ is pioneering in AI policing

Infamous for its cocain trafficking and whoredom rings, Miami, fla., earned the notorious rubric of America’s ‘ do drugs capital’ for over three decades starting from the 1970s, turning its police force into seasoned veterans in the war against crime. Today, the Miami Police Department is harnessing the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to tackle crime with unprecedented precision and effectiveness, deploying cutting-edge tech solutions, to make the city safer than ever before.

Last month, the Sheriff’s Office of Miami-Dade (larger county that includes Miami) and the Policing Lab (US-based nonprofit) launched America’s first Police Unmanned Ground (PUG) vehicle Patrol Partner.

It is designed to be used as a patrolling vehicle with drone launch capabilities. It also has AI-driven analytics, real-time crime data, and a suite of sensors, including 360-degree cameras, thermal imaging, and license plate recognition.

“The PUG increases situational awareness, automates repetitive tasks, and frees deputies to focus on the complex and human side of policing. It’s a practical step toward safer, more efficient public safety,” Marjolijn Bruggeling, executive director of Policing Lab, told Business Wire. He says the PUG Patrol Partner will bring about efficiency and cost savings by extending resources without the American taxpayer’s expense.

The Miami-Dade County Public Defender’s Office has also adopted AI to organise information, conduct legal research, and facilitate day-to-day work. The office handles about 15,000 open cases at any given time, and is now using CoCounsel, an AI platform that is backed by a legal large language model.

“We were not scared of it. We welcomed it because we know the technology has to be the way we handle additional workload,” said Miami-Dade public defender, Carlos J. Martinez on using CoCounsel, as reported by Government Technology Magazine (US-based) last week.

Both the Miami Police Department (MPD) and the Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD) have been proactive in utilising the AI. In a National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee here in September 2024, the assistant chief, Armando Aguilar, who heads MPD’s Criminal Investigations Division, said that his department is using a host of AI tools, including gunshot detection, video analytics, and facial recognition. He said that when his detectives use an AI tool, the case has a 60% better chance of being solved.

It’s been especially helpful in date-rape investigations, he said. “A rape victim meets a suspect online, they don’t know a first and last name. They know a social media handle. And so the detectives are able to use the social media profile to more quickly get to a real name and then be able to build a case.”

Aguilar also testified in the hearing that the reliability of AI technology has improved over the past few years, but that there are still concerns about abuse and misuse. He said his department restricts AI use for First Amendment activities like peaceful protests.

In a US Senate hearing in January 2024, Officer Aguilar said that AI has helped Miami become “safer today than in any other time in our history.” Before AI, he said, the police department was only able to arrest suspects in 45% of murders and less than 38% of violent crimes. However, after it started using the technology in 2023, it solved 68% of the murders that occurred that year and 58% of the violent crimes.

The AI tools in use

For facial recognition tasks, both the MPD and MDPD use ClearviewAI, made by a US-based company of the same name. ClearviewAI’s algorithm converts the facial features into mathematical data and searches its vast database for matching images.

For video analytics and gunshot detection, they both use ShotSpotter, made by SoundThinking (US-based). ShotSpotter uses acoustic sensors to detect and triangulate the exact location of outdoor gunshots in real-time, sending alerts directly to officers’ patrol cars and a real-time crime centre, often before emergency services are notified.

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