Councilman Kling Addresses Arsenal Traffic, Paused AI Camera Plans

There’s a thread connecting Huntsvillians no matter the district they live in.

“It’s like the Indy 500,’’ has been said at town halls and the like more than once.

Usually, the reference is to schools once the bell rings. Too much traffic, they say. Cars zoom out of pickup lanes and onto the surrounding streets.

But, at District 4 Councilman Bill Kling’s weekly meeting with constituents at the downtown public library Monday, fingers were pointed elsewhere.

“One problem that we’re really trying to get taken care of has to do with the traffic coming in off the arsenal on Patton Road,’’ Kling said following the meeting. “When cars come out of the arsenal (Gate 10) they start speeding, and it’s a dangerous situation for people in the Bailey-Patton neighborhood to be able to exit out onto Patton Road at that place. We’re trying to get the police department involved in helping on that.’’

Another hot topic has cooled somewhat since it was announced that plans regarding City Detect’s AI camera system to be placed on garbage trucks were shelved and no longer considered for Mayor Tommy Battle’s FY26 budget plans.

However, the program will be revisited after more investigation by the city. 

“There are questions. It’s like a new technology (to constituents),’’ Kling said. “There’s a lot of stuff that needs to be worked out. It’s kind of like if you bought an LED television when they first came out – the technology is not as good as it is now. 

“This is a new technology, but they need to get it more refined. There are questions about data storage and protection of data.’’

Kling, the longest serving member of the Huntsville City Council, compared it to the time a few years back when the city flirted with making Segways available to residents like bicycles are now.

“We were looking at putting those in Huntsville and looking around and seeing all the problems with those things,’’ Kling said. “You go into a big city, you see them lying on the ground all over the place.

“Sometimes, they don’t work right. There’s all sorts of problems with those things. So we looked at it and we decided we’re not gonna put those into Huntsville.’’

The City Detect system is being used in other cities including Greenville, S.C.; Stockton, Calif; and Prescott Valley, Ariz.