The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office is testing AI to help draft police reports, aiming to reduce paperwork and improve efficiency.

Rochester: The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office is giving AI a shot to help with police reports. They’ve bought a tool called Draft One from Axon, which uses tech similar to ChatGPT. This software can turn audio from body cameras into first-person narratives for reports. Officers can then tweak the text before it gets filed.
Axon claims that officers spend a whopping 40% of their time on paperwork. This AI could speed things up significantly. However, some legal experts and watchdog groups are worried about potential errors and biases in AI-generated reports. They fear it could be misused by officers who might not be held accountable.
Deputy Brendan Hurley mentioned that they haven’t rolled it out yet. They plan to start slow, using it in training for new deputies to show how to create narrative reports. As they prove its effectiveness, they’ll expand its use to non-criminal reports and eventually to minor criminal cases. The key is that deputies must review and confirm the accuracy of the reports.
The Draft One software comes with a hefty price tag of nearly $1.8 million, spread over ten years. It’s part of a larger tech package from Axon, which includes drones, license plate readers, and a network of surveillance cameras for local schools and neighborhoods.
These cameras are popping up all over Rochester, keeping an eye on various areas. The city is also using Shot Spotters to alert police when gunfire is detected. The entire tech bundle is valued at $22.2 million, costing the sheriff’s office about $15.4 million over the next decade.
Police tech vendors are pushing their products as the latest in public safety. They offer steep discounts for bundled deals, and local and state grants are fueling this tech boom. Last year, Governor Kathy Hochul approved $127 million in grants for police surveillance tech, which is a significant increase from her initial investment.
Draft One hit the market last year, and Axon claims it has built-in safeguards to keep humans in charge. Officers must review and approve the reports, and the narratives are based solely on body camera audio. Each draft has sections that officers need to edit, preventing automatic approvals.
Before launching, Axon conducted studies to check for racial bias and found no significant differences in AI-generated reports from different backgrounds. They also claim the software avoids speculation and embellishments.
One Colorado police department that tested it said it cut report writing time by 82% and improved report quality by catching small details. But after its release, concerns about accuracy and accountability have surfaced.
The ACLU recently published a paper warning against AI-generated police reports due to worries about their reliability. They pointed out that AI can be quirky and biased, potentially leading to subtle inaccuracies that officers might not catch.
Moreover, the Electronic Frontier Foundation noted that AI struggles with understanding speech nuances, which could affect report accuracy. There’s also a risk that officers might overlook important details if they rely too much on AI-generated narratives.
Some departments have had trouble tracking which reports were AI-generated and which were written by humans. Even though Axon requires officer approval, that information isn’t always clear in the final report, making it hard to trace back.
Hurley from MCSO acknowledges the potential flaws in this tech and emphasizes that they’ll use it as a starting point, not the final word. They plan to review body camera footage to verify report accuracy.
Some departments do require officers to disclose AI use at the end of reports, but it’s still unclear how they’ll differentiate between AI-generated text and what the officer added. If discrepancies arise, an officer might claim the AI misinterpreted the situation, complicating accountability.
— The Democrat and Chronicle is looking into police surveillance efforts in western New York as part of an investigative project called “Eyes on Us.” If you have questions about AI police reports or surveillance tech, email Kayla Canne at kcanne@gannett.com, and they’ll try to answer them in future stories.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Monroe County Sheriff’s Office uses Axon Draft One AI police reports