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Cops testing AI body camera that ‘writes its own police reports’ in five minutes and boast it’s ‘exceeded expectations’
Police officers reveal exactly how much time it's saving each day
COPS are trialing new AI tech that writes police reports based on body camera footage – and it takes just minutes.
The system has received rave reviews from law enforcement, but strict rules are required to avoid any artificial intelligence blunders.
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Security tech giant Axon says its Draft One is revolutionary.
And the company hopes that it could give police more time to focus on other parts of their jobs.
"Every single officer in the U.S. writes police reports, often every day and normally multiple times a day," said Axon chief Rick Smith.
"As we've done with Draft One, harnessing the power of AI will prove to be one of the most impactful technological advancements of our time.
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"To help scale police work and revolutionize the way public safety operates."
Police have already been trialing the system.
And Axon says that it's saving roughly an hour of a day per office.
This could translate to an extra shift of work for every eight officers that use the tech.
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It works by uploading the audio from body camera footage.
This will be automatically transcribed and processed into a police report.
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According to Axon, this can be completed within just five minutes of an incident ending.
ON TRIAL
Police who have trialed the tech were impressed by its usefulness.
"With over 27 years of experience in law enforcement, I have seen technology come and go," said Fort Collins Colorado Police Services Sergeant Robert Younger.
Draft One has exceeded our expectations and will be a huge asset to our agency.
Robert Younger
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"But Draft One is one of the most exciting innovations for law enforcement I have ever seen.
"Our agency has been testing Draft One, and we have seen an 82% decrease in time spent writing reports.
"Testing Officers have also shared that the quality of their reports has improved substantially, with Draft One including statements and actions that could have easily been overlooked or missed if done manually.
"Draft One has exceeded our expectations and will be a huge asset to our agency."
Draft One 'safeguards' revealed
Here's the full list of Draft One safeguards, according to Axon...
- Officer required to review and sign off: Once the report narrative has been edited and key information has been added, officers are required to sign off on the report's accuracy before submitting for the next round of human review.
- Adheres to the audio data: Report narratives are drafted strictly from the audio transcript from the body-worn camera recording. Axon calibrated the underlying model for Draft One to prevent speculation or embellishments.
- Controls to ensure proofreading: Each draft includes placeholders that officers are required to edit, by either adding more information or removing the placeholder.
- Report drafts are restricted to minor incidents and charges: The default experience limits report drafts to minor incident types and charge levels, specifically excluding incidents where arrests took place and for felonies. With this default, agencies can get started with Draft One and gain tremendous value in expediting report writing for the overwhelming majority of reports officers submit. This allows agencies the option to gain experience on low severity reports first, then expand to more severe reports once they gain experience in how to use the tool effectively. Agencies can set a policy determining which reports are eligible for Draft One utilization, and the tool then ensures enforcement of the agency policy.
Axon says it did a double-blind study to compare its AI reports with ones from regular offers.
And it says that Draft One results were "equal to or better than" regular police reports.
However, the system uses AI and can't be solely relied on.
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There are multiple safeguards built into the system, including manual officer review and sign-off.
The report drafts are also restricted strictly to minor incidents and charges by default.
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