Kansas City bus agency wants to use AI facial recognition. Critics say it'll make riders less safe

Kansas City's transit authority is pushing to deploy facial recognition technology on buses to catch fare evaders and identify suspects, but privacy advocates warn the surveillance system could actually endanger the riders it claims to protect by chilling ridership among vulnerable populations already wary of law enforcement. The proposal exposes a growing tension in American cities: the promise of AI-powered safety colliding with evidence that mass surveillance disproportionately harms the very communities most dependent on public transportation. At stake is whether transit agencies can use cutting-edge technology to solve old problems without recreating the same patterns of discrimination that have long plagued policing in urban America.

KCUR·8h ago