City Detect Raises $13M Series A to Expand Vision AI for Local Governments

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Published by Stephen Oluwadara at March 9, 2026

How Does City Detect Work

American cities are losing a battle they can barely see every day, as graffiti spreads, vacant lots accumulate debris, and roofs quietly deteriorate. Code enforcement teams struggle to keep up, addressing issues one citizen complaint at a time, with a single officer able to file roughly 50 reports in a week. City Detect’s PASS AI™ platform offers a game-changer, delivering thousands of insights daily to help cities manage the growing number of issues they face.

Launched in 2021, the AI-powered platform helps local governments proactively detect and fix urban blight (graffiti, illegal dumping, abandoned structures, etc.). City Detect uses advanced computer vision and AI technology. They work with local governments to fix the issues, a process that usually involves local officials sending a crew out to clean everything up.

The company’s approach involves mounting high-resolution cameras on fleet vehicles already navigating city streets – garbage trucks, street sweepers, and code enforcement vehicles.

These cameras use computer vision models trained to identify over 100 signs of urban blight and property decay. This includes issues like illegal dumping, graffiti, storm damage, and overgrown lots. Essentially, it works like a Google Maps Street View, but focused on ensuring buildings are up to code.

The PASS AI™ graffiti models are sophisticated enough to distinguish between vandalism and sanctioned mural artwork, flagging spray-painted tags while leaving community art untouched. This generates a prioritized, mapped dashboard that cuts officers’ fieldwork by over 25%.

Progress Made Over the Years

Although the company was founded by Gavin Baum-Blake and Dr. Erik Johnson, Baum-Blake is the remaining co-founder and now serves as CEO. He is a U.S. Army veteran and licensed attorney who has spent years watching municipalities respond to urban blight with outdated tools. These teams are stretched thin with ever-expanding scopes of work.

Currently, tracking dilapidated buildings is a very manual process, so Baum-Blake considers the “status quo” his main competition. “Humans tasked with keeping track of decaying buildings can do 50 per week,” he said, “whereas we’re able to do thousands per week.”

City Detect saw 4x growth in 2025, now serving cities like Dallas, TX, Cleveland, OH, Stockton, CA, and others. In Stockton, PASS AI™ identified over 4,000 code violations across 2,500 properties in just one week.

Cleveland previously spent $170,000 and deployed 40 officers over six months for a property survey in 2022, but one City Detect-equipped vehicle can now cover the same area in weeks. The company also helped Greenville, South Carolina, assess storm damage after Hurricane Helene.

In Cathedral City, courtesy notices personalized with problem pictures are driving 40% voluntary compliance on the first notice, while Stockton’s RISE program achieves 80% overall voluntary compliance.

“It’s a force multiplier,” said Justin Gardiner, Code Enforcement Director at Cathedral City. Harold Roach, Director of Code Enforcement at Newport News, VA, added, “This is going to revolutionize code enforcement.”

Next Steps for The Startup

The Series A funding of $13 million allows the team to heavily invest in sales and expansion efforts, partnering with new local governments across the US. The team is also set to roll out new solutions for public works departments, including infrastructure asset detection and post-storm damage assessment.

“We are seeing huge efficiency gains across the departments that we work with, we’re seeing more instances of blight being solved without anyone receiving a citation, we’re seeing tires and litter, and illegal dumping being abated quicker and detected quicker,” Baum-Blake said to TechCrunch. “It’s exciting to see technology-forward municipalities lean into predictive AI like City Detect’s models.”

City Detect is in at least 17 cities and works with local governments in places like Dallas and Miami. Early adopters were Birmingham, Atlanta, and Stockton. The company is a member of the GovAI Coalition (an AI governance collective), is SOC 2 Type II compliant (meaning it’s independently certified for privacy), and follows its own responsible AI policy.

City Detect raised $2 million in a 2024 seed round, so this new round brings the total amount it has raised to $15 million. The startup was founded in Alabama and at the moment operates remotely across the US.

Main Image: City Detect Team. Image Credit: City Detect