One of the most realistic lines in a film on policing came from End of Watch. No, not the opening narration of being “fate with a badge and a gun”. Instead, it’s one that really encapsulates one of the most important parts of being a police officer — paperwork.
When I first started in law enforcement, I can still hear one of my field training officers telling me: “you’re an armed scribe”. He wasn’t too far off base — and for those who are considering entering the profession, just know you are constantly writing and typing.
“This is the lifeblood of our organization: paperwork. Just as red corpuscles carry oxygen through the body, paperwork carries information through the department.”
—Brian Taylor, portrayed by Jake Gyllenhaal in End of Watch
Years ago, an officer would sit in a doughnut shop (insert your jokes here) and handwrite reports. In more recent history, you may find officers backed into a parking space with an ever-watchful eye for everything around them while typing up their reports. Technology has helped to make the process much easier, faster, and more efficient. In the last several years, many agencies have moved to adopt artificial intelligence into their body cameras to help officers in creating the narratives for their reports.
As someone who once wore a badge, I believe this technology has incredible potential. If I were bouncing from call to call with little down time, the program running in the background taking notes for a narrative could at the very least give me a primer for each case to write my report. The technology requires an officer to input information and then they must agree that they have read the report and certify it to be correct before they copy it into the department form or software.
However, there are concerns in using this technology. AI hallucinations have caught the attention of many judges where attorneys have submitted legal briefs written by artificial intelligence, only to cite inaccurate data or simply make up information. Vendors have adjusted their creativity algorithm to prevent this from occurring. Another concern raised by critics of the technology is the fact that the first draft created by it is promptly deleted upon the completion of its usage.
These criticisms hold a lot of merit, as police in Utah recently had to explain how an officer was documented to have turned into a frog in a police report. Having a copy of this initial draft can also help law enforcement leaders to have a better understanding of the technology, its potential limitations, and if the program is cost effective.
Transparency in using this technology is crucial. We want officers to have all the tools they need to keep our communities safe to the best of their ability and provide agencies with an opportunity to reduce costs. However, we must strike a balance with innovation and transparency.
In Utah, a bill was recently signed into law requiring law enforcement to put a disclosure statement on the report highlighting the usage of generative artificial intelligence in the creation of the police report. In California, a step further requires law enforcement to retain the first copy of the report generated by the software.
Legislatures across the country have an opportunity to promote transparency and equip officers with the tools they need to protect our communities by requiring clear disclosures when artificial intelligence is used in law enforcement reports—and by retaining initial drafts to ensure these tools are truly cost-effective, time-saving, and worthy of public trust.