How Scottsdale police are using AI to help write police incident reports

How Scottsdale police are using AI to help write police incident reports


SCOTTSDALE, AZ (AZFamily) — Artificial intelligence has now found its way into Valley police departments: Scottsdale police officers are the latest to use the technology to help write their crime reports.

Since launching the six-month pilot program in April, about 40 Scottsdale police officers have generated reports using AI. The department estimates it has saved them about 30 minutes each time.

Axon, the company behind body-worn cameras, now has an AI tool known as Draft One. It uses the audio from these recordings to write up police reports. “You don’t have to wait till you go back to the station to dock your camera to upload your camera so officers, from their cars, go into Evidence.com. They can pull up their reports; and they can use draft one and instantly have a draft,” Sgt. Paul Wright described.

Draft One is different from other AI writing tools.

“This isn’t ChatGPT. It’s not bringing in content that wasn’t there in the first place,” he explained.

Any report written with AI would include a legal statement disclosing that information, and the report needs human verification before being submitted.

“When you talk about detaining someone or arresting someone, doing a search in inventory. You know, legally, they’re important. So it’s very important that we get those details right in the reports, not just not just initially, but again for courts, for records for prosecution,” said Wright.

Criminal defense attorney Russ Richelsoph warns that AI-generated reports could contain mistakes and create real legal problems.

“Defense attorneys rely on these police reports to understand what the accusation is against the client and what witnesses are saying, so the accuracy of these reports is important,” he said.

Richelsoph also argued police reports could lose the human element and attention to detail that officers often incorporate into their reports.

“When a human police officer writes a police report, they’ll oftentimes include information about what the person’s appearance and what they’re wearing, how they presented, you know, did the person appear intoxicated?” he explained.

The department is weighing whether this will be a permanent addition, but it does come when many departments face budget pressures and struggle to recruit and retain officers.

“It helps because throughout the officers shift, they’re more available to take calls for service to be available to the public, to be community policing,” Wright said.

The software has been tested across all kinds of investigations, from shoplifting to drugs, and Wright says they found it’s best used in situations that aren’t too chaotic or loud.

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