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The Bloomington Police Department is trying a new way to engage with the community, a car karaoke YouTube series.  

Bloomington Police Chief Booker T. Hodges is the creator and host.

“I take the blame or credit, whichever day it is for this program,” he told MPR News morning edition host Cathy Wurzer.

Episode one featured Bloomington Mayor Tim Busse. Hodges says the idea is to take a local celebrity for a ride-along, spend a few minutes talking about a local issue and sing a few songs. In all, he hopes the videos will “get people to pay attention to issues that they might not necessarily pay attention to, at the same time, have some fun with it, and ultimately, humanize people that hold different positions throughout the community.”

Hodges said it’s important to be accessible to the community and counter pop culture stereotypes.  

“I don’t think we should be strangers to those in our community. And I think when those in our communities see us a lot — either via social media, or on TV or listen to us on these radio shows — when they see us out in the community with them, you know, they feel like they know us, which I think helps increase trust because obviously, people are more likely to trust people that they know.”  

 from the U.S. Conference of Mayors for a program that developed a community-informed set of shared values for the police department. Hodges plans to use the money to evaluate the impact of this initiative. 

“It’s one thing for me as the chief to go out here and say our core value is respect, but how far does that soak down in the organization all the way down to the live staff, our record staff, our telecommunications … Hopefully, this is something that communities throughout the country, especially here in Minnesota, can replicate, if they want to increase and maintain trust within their communities.” 

As for his next car karaoke guest, Hodges said he’s still deciding, but there’ll be at least another video out this month. 

Facial recognition technology at Mall of America 

Hodges also discussed Mall of America’s announcement that 

it’s rolling out facial recognition technology

Hodges said the police department won’t use facial recognition to make arrests. However, he supports the technology and believes it will make the mall safer. 

“If you look at the January 6 riots at the Capitol, if it wasn’t for facial recognition, half those people wouldn’t have been caught,” he said. “We’ve had multiple people at the mall who’ve been convicted for threats … And I get people’s apprehension about facial recognition, but it’s deployed in so many other places throughout our lives that people just don’t even pay attention to it.” 

The ACLU of Minnesota condemns the use of facial recognition at the MOA. 

 out of seven known wrongful arrests using the technology across the country all but one arrestee is Black. The National Institute of Standards and Technology 

 for women, and Asian and African Americans compared to their white peers. 

Hodges told Wurzer that the Bloomington Police Department wants to hire a dedicated AI officer “so we can start exploring this technology and see how criminals are utilizing it. I just don’t believe that any technology right now is developed enough to where we can't rely on human verification behind it.” 

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Bloomington Police Chief Booker T. Hodges says he takes “the blame or credit” for a new YouTube series he hopes will get the public to pay attention to issues they might not otherwise while having a little fun.

Bloomington police chief discusses police car karaoke and AI facial recognition at Mall of America

Two people, one in a police officer uniform, sit in a car.

Bloomington police chief discusses police car karaoke and AI facial recognition at Mall of America

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