Altamonte Springs embraces AI technology to save taxpayer money, City Manager says

One Orlando suburban city is embracing artificial intelligence, weaving the new technology into its human resources to the Police Department operations to save taxpayer money.

Altamonte Springs, a city of more than 45,000 people north of Orlando, is using the cutting-edge technology at a time when AI reform continues to be a political hot-button issue in Florida and nationally.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has called lawmakers back to Tallahassee for a Special Session with AI protections as part of the agenda. The Legislature failed to pass an AI bill of rights earlier this year amid a debate over whether the state or federal government should handle oversight.

But in Altamonte Springs, City Manager Frank Martz shared with Florida Politics how AI is helping make a positive difference for city operations.

“Every new science, every new process, you have to be responsible in its use. And from where we sit, if we’re able to save money for our taxpayers and make the lives of our residents better and the economy better for the businesses that are here, it is a responsibility of government to exploit that technology — but to do so in responsible ways,” said Martz, who has led Altamonte since 2010.

Altamonte became the first city in the 18th Judicial Circuit approved to use AI-based body cameras for its Police Department, Martz said.

The technology was rolled out earlier this year to help officers not only communicate with the diverse public, but also write faster, more accurate police reports. 

“We’re just fully deployed now. Everybody’s got it,” Martz said.

In the early 1990s, Altamonte became the first Police Department in the country where all officers used body cameras, Martz said. Back then, large camcorders were bolted on the dashboard. Today, AI body camera software from Axon translates in real time the language being spoken to officers.

“Imagine someone who is speaking Farsi or someone who is speaking Arabic or someone who is speaking Portuguese,” Martz said. “Even our bilingual officers who speak English and Spanish don’t speak Portuguese.”

The technology also translates an officer’s instructions, which can help police “engage and de-escalate,” Martz said.

The AI technology also records, capturing everything said on the scene, then generating a police report. It even pulls the exact statutory citation into the report, saving officers considerable time.

A human component remains. The police officer and supervisors review the finished police report for accuracy, so the system is not fully automated.

The technology costs the city about $171,000 annually, but Martz said  it produces a 14% return on investment.

Meanwhile, Altamonte built a bot dubbed Herman Resources last year to help answer questions for its 431 paid employees and 505 city volunteers. Herman can spit out details about the city’s leave policy or explain how to file a grievance without a manager or HR having to dig through the city’s thick policy manual. Herman is available 24/7 and provides answers in diverse languages to help employees.

“They can ask questions at any time of the day or night, and they can get not just the answer, but they can get the citation of the policy that is the basis of the answer. And what that’s allowed us to do is, it has allowed us to free up time in our already very, very overworked staff,” Martz said. “It has saved us about 40% of an FTE.”

That frees up HR to do other work and develop other projects, including more AI initiatives.

AI avatars are interacting with new employees about health care insurance and teaching basic training, such as how to use the city’s internal computer systems. Again, that means a city employee is freed up from orientation as AI handles it.

Altamonte is also the first city in the United States to conduct AI-powered site plan reviews, Martz said.

Previously, the city normally spent three weeks reviewing site plans against existing comprehensive land use plans and zoning regulations. Now, the process takes 30 minutes.

“In development, time is money,” Martz said.

AI assists with basic steps, like verifying how many parking spaces a development plan has or catching obvious mistakes, like engineers submitting a building plan that’s bigger than the parcel of land it sits on.

Using AI has helped the city catch inconsistencies and errors in its own city code that confuses developers.

“For example, our code may require a 2-inch caliper tree, and then another part of our code may say up to a 2-inch tree, and another part of our code may say not less than 2-inch caliper tree,” Martz said.

Altamonte has a history of being a leader in pushing new technology, Martz said.

Its Police Department was among the first in the country to start using electric vehicles. The city also built an innovative 2-acre floating solar array technology for supplying power to its Regional Water Reclamation Facility. Altamonte was also the first city to ever partner with Uber for public transportation.

“One of the things we say is: Adam Smith would love Altamonte Springs,” Martz said

So perhaps it’s no surprise that Altamonte Springs is embracing AI technology.

“It was a natural evolution. So as artificial intelligence became more mainstream, we had already been using it,” Martz said.

Altamonte is also collaborative and working with governments to share its best practices and help grow the region.

“Our message at the city of Altamonte Springs is that we are embracing that responsibility and we should all lean on one another for lessons learned,” Martz said.

Altamonte formed a group called the Altamonte Global Innovation Lab (AGIL), which has every local government represented in Seminole County as well as the Orlando Sanford International Airport. The group works together to explore private-public partnerships and embrace new technologies, Martz said.

“We just inked a deal with the Korean American Chamber of Commerce to help bring innovation companies from the Republic of South Korea,” Martz said. “We’re talking with potential affiliates in Europe to help bring innovation companies to Florida.”