Artificial intelligence-enhanced reporting tools developed for police departments in the USA fell short of providing the targeted efficiency. The system offered by Axon, which was expected to reduce the workload of civil servants, on the contrary made operational processes more complex.

Public documents and research reveal that the system causes the police to spend more time due to the production of incorrect data. Civil servants state that the forms they completed more quickly manually took longer due to artificial intelligence errors.

Report preparation times have been extended

The Lafayette Police Department tested the system called Form One, developed by Axon, for seven months. The system, which aims to automatically fill in information such as name and license plate by analyzing body camera images, frequently produces incorrect data.

A police officer stated that a report he had previously completed in 30 seconds took three minutes because he was busy correcting the errors of the system. Other officers also reported that the time it took to prepare reports had obviously increased.

Axon argues that the system is now in the early access phase and continues to be improved with feedback. The Lafayette Police Department has not yet made a clear decision on permanent use of the system.

Independent investigations and legal obstacles

Axon claims that the Draft One platform is used in 600 departments and provides significant time savings. However, independent research shows that there is no significant improvement in reporting times and police are spending extra hours to make corrections.

There are also important legal issues, and the King County Prosecutor’s Office in Washington state announced that it will not accept reports prepared with artificial intelligence as evidence. The prosecutor’s office emphasizes that flaws such as the system mixing up witness names and adding individuals who were not at the scene to the report create reliability problems.

Experts agree that technology is not yet mature enough to produce accurate police reports. Although the company continues to increase its revenues from artificial intelligence products, applications in the field raise important questions.

Do you think artificial intelligence tools are sufficiently reliable to reduce the administrative workload of security forces?