Coming to your local police station: AI-generated reports

It’s a few years away, but Brandon Miller foresees a day when somebody calls 911 and the call for help – whether delivered in English or another tongue – is automatically typed and sent to a nearby squad car.

The typing won’t be done by a human being, however. It will be done with artificial intelligence.

Miller is executive director of Illinois Valley Regional Dispatch. Recently, he’s met with vendors who’ve pitched AI products that will transcribe phone calls and radio traffic, even in foreign languages, and assist dispatchers and patrol officers with documentation, summaries and alerts.

And if AI picks up on a catch phrase such as “shots fired,” an alert would automatically go out to administration at IVRD and the nearby police station.

“Technology is moving fast and at IVRD we want to be on the cutting edge and provide our citizens and visitors and responders with the best information possible,” Miller said. “It’s in our overall plan but it must be budgeted for.”

Law enforcement as a whole is changing thanks to AI. The Elgin Police Department, for example, has implemented technology that automatically produces reports of conversations recorded on police body cameras.

It’s a new technology, and La Salle County State’s Attorney Joe Navarro said he foresees no problem getting AI-generated reports admitted into criminal cases.

Navarro said he’s visited trade shows and seen demonstrations of AI report writing. The key feature, he said, is that reports include prompts that require an officer to verify the accuracy of the AI transcription.

Even though AI might have transcribed the report, Navarro explained, an officer’s editing and verifying of that report is what will matter when judges decide whether to admit it into a criminal case.

“Admissibility is not going to be a problem,” Navarro said. And if the technology saves man-hours and reduces transcription errors, then Navarro is all for it.

“I see it as a very good, time-saving and accurate way to record information.”

Whether local agencies can afford AI transcription – or to justify the purchase come budgeting time – is another story. No police interviewed for this story said their departments have AI-generated reporting and none signaled they’re ready to procure it.

Ottawa Police Chief Mike Cheatham said he’s monitoring the progress of the report-generating software and he’s not yet convinced it’ll save his officers enough time to justify the outlay.

Cheatham said while the emerging technology shows promise, the editing required to make the reports complete and cohesive is time-consuming in its own right.

“It still needs some work, in my opinion,” Cheatham said. “We’re not willing to go with it yet. I’m not sure we’ll see it in the remainder of my career.”

La Salle Police Chief Mike Smudzinski said he’s potentially interested – down the road, anyway – but his department just implemented body cameras on Dec. 31 and “there’s still a learning curve” with the new devices.

Even if the need for AI-generated software arose, Smudzinski said he would need multiple questions answered before going to the city council to discuss funding.

Question no. 1 is whether the software would be compatible with other brands of body cameras. Elgin police use Axon, for example, while Smudzinski’s department uses Martel and neighboring departments use Motorola. He’d need assurances that cutting-edge software will work with existing hardware.

“It sounds like a great idea but I think there’s a lot more moving parts to know about first,” Smudzinski said.

But other chiefs interviewed had a two-word response: no sale.

Streator Police Chief John Franklin said the technology might come in handy someday, but presently he’s confident in his officers’ ability to craft reports. He does not consider report-writing an especially onerous or time-consuming job.

Utica Police Chief James Mandujano said the technology simply is cost-prohibitive for a department his size.

“The price is just outrageous,” Mandujano said. “There’s just no way we can afford it.”

Mandujano said the limited number of reports that get sent to the state’s attorney’s office couldn’t justify the investment. Utica officers are busy with traffic and public safety issues but the yearly total of serious cases can be counted on two hands.