Many officers still in uniform can remember the day when reports were all written by hand. If the shift supervisor happened to identify any errors in a report, the unfortunate author had to diligently apply whiteout to not one but four carbon-enabled pages on the archaic forms. The advent of the ability to complete a report on a computer was akin to Prometheus showing up with that first spark of flame. Many computer-based reporting programs eliminate redundancies in the reports, drastically cutting down on the time it takes for a cop to finish up and get back on the streets.”

Sadly, computer-based report-writing software still requires an officer to write … at least for now.

Axon, the company known for their prolific grip on the bodycam market and the now-standard-issued Taser, is selling an AI-based report-writing software. The software, called Draft One, uses artificial intelligence to review an officer’s body camera footage and create a narrative of the events described. According to the Democrat and Chronicle, a Colorado agency that tested the program found it reduced time spent writing reports by 82%. In a world where reports seem to grow more thorough and time-intensive with each passing year, that could be a game-changer.

The software, called Draft One, uses artificial intelligence to review an officer’s body camera footage and create a narrative of the events described.

The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) in Rochester, New York, recently purchased the software and plans to implement the AI capabilities in a “measured rollout.” According to MCSO Deputy Brendan Hurley, the sheriff’s office will start by using it in training sessions with new deputies to demonstrate how to build narrative police reports.

“As its capabilities are proven, we will expand that to noncriminal incident reports, eventually working our way up to using it with lesser criminal cases,” Hurley told the Democrat and Chronicle. “In every use case, the deputy is forced by the program to review, edit as needed, verify and attest to its accuracy.”

Not everyone is thrilled with the idea, though.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has concerns, recently publishing a white paper that expressed their reservations about the concept. The report includes concerns that AI tools can produce errors or false content. 

“Police reports, which are often the only official account of what took place during a particular incident, are central to the criminal proceedings that determine people’s innocence, guilt and punishment,” wrote Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst at the ACLU.

The folks at the ACLU aren’t the only ones dragging their heels at the idea. In Washington State, Seattle-area police agencies were ordered not to use any AI tools to draft reports by the prosecutor’s office due to concerns that the software could introduce errors. To back up their claims, the prosecutor’s office cited a specific AI-generated report they’d reviewed. It was an excellent report, with the exception that it discussed an officer who wasn’t even at the scene of the incident.  

Despite the concerns expressed in some corners of society, we likely haven’t seen the last of AI-assisted report-writing software.