The Pima County Sheriff’s Department is utilizing Axon’s AI program, Draft One, to streamline the report-writing process for deputies, saving valuable time in the field.
As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to gain traction across various sectors, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department in Arizona is exploring its potential applications in law enforcement. At the beginning of this year, deputies began a trial of Axon’s Draft One, an innovative program designed to assist in writing incident reports using AI technology.
Draft One operates by recording interactions through body cameras. The program then processes the audio along with any additional information provided by the deputy to generate a first draft of the report. This initial draft is not submitted as the final report; instead, deputies review and verify its completeness and accuracy before finalizing it.
“They’re able to verify the completeness, the accuracy, and all of that,” said Captain Derek Ogden. “But the initial first draft, they can’t submit as their case report.”
During a demonstration of the program, Deputy Dylan Lane illustrated how Draft One can significantly reduce the time required to complete a case report. What would typically take him around 30 minutes to finish can now be accomplished in just five minutes.
“Most of that time is just the quick changes, making sure that all the information is still accurate and then just adding in those little details,” Lane explained.
Captain Ogden emphasized that Draft One is particularly beneficial during shifts when deputies are responding to multiple incidents in quick succession. He noted that this program is one of several AI tools the department is investigating to enhance productivity and efficiency.
“Recently, we saw a detective from our criminal investigative division use AI to identify a deceased unidentified person,” Ogden said. “We’re also looking for ways to increase the productivity and efficiency of our patrol deputies and some of our corrections officers.”
Law enforcement agencies nationwide are increasingly evaluating how AI can assist in addressing resource shortages. Max Isaacs from The Policing Project, a non-profit organization affiliated with NYU School of Law that focuses on public safety and police accountability, highlighted the appeal of AI tools for budget-constrained policing agencies.
“A lot of policing agencies are budget constrained. It is very attractive to them to have a tool that could allow them to do more with less,” Isaacs stated. However, he also pointed out that while AI presents opportunities for resource savings, there is limited data available on the actual effectiveness of these programs.
“You have a lot of examples of crimes being solved or efficiencies being realized,” Isaacs noted. “But in terms of large-scale studies that rigorously show us the amount of benefit, we don’t have those yet.”
Concerns regarding the accuracy of AI systems were also raised. Isaacs cautioned that AI is not infallible and can rely on flawed data, which may lead to serious consequences such as false arrests or misdirected investigations.
“AI is not perfect. It can rely on data that is flawed. The system itself could be flawed. When you have errors in AI systems, that can lead to some pretty serious consequences,” he said.
In response to these concerns, Captain Ogden acknowledged the potential for inaccuracies in AI-generated reports. He reiterated the importance of human oversight, emphasizing that every report produced with Draft One must be reviewed by a deputy before submission.
Following a successful trial involving 20 deputies, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department plans to expand the use of Draft One to corrections officers, further integrating AI into their operations.
Source: Original article