Copyright Live 5 News WCSC
ISLE OF PALMS, S.C. (WCSC) - The Isle of Palms Police Department is the first city-level police department in the state to try out an artificial intelligence tool that helps them draft incident reports. Abel AI takes video from police officers’ body camera footage to produce the draft. The department just wrapped up its first month of a free three-month pilot program. “It’s not doing my job for me, but it’s certainly making life slightly easier,” Isle of Palms Police Department Officer Ned Donovan said. Twenty-five police departments throughout the nation use Abel AI, most are on the West Coast, with a few in the Midwest and some in Texas. The Isle of Palms Police Department is enthused to be ahead of the curve in trying out the technology new to the East Coast. “We do transcription, but we also do computer vision analysis so it understands what is going on on the screen,” Abel AI Chief Executive Officer Daniel Francis said. The department just finished the first month of their three-month pilot program, trying out the tool. It’s compliant with federal and state regulations, stored in a secure environment, and deleted afterward. “It picks up things that in the moment I didn’t notice, when we go to calls your adrenaline is quite high, your working at a much more focused level with dealing with the incident at hand, you maybe miss all of the details, but being able to go through that video and look at transcript that picks up everything makes sure that you can get them,” Donovan said. It’s not just copy and paste; it’s edited by the officer, they make changes that the video didn’t capture, add context, and make sure there are no mistakes. “We have to make sure that it’s a true reflection of what happened, and then if something happens down the road, that’s on me as the police officer who wrote the report,” Donovan said. Officers have to sign an affidavit making them legally responsible for the content of the report. Donovan said just in the first month, Abel AI made improvements specific to their department, like the formatting of the report. Upgrades are also on the horizon. “We are rolling out a tool by the end of the month that will allow administration of the agency to go in and edit their templates so it will allow them to write really specifically how they want,” Francis said. Francis said police spend at least a third of their time writing reports, and his platform helps them decrease the amount of tax dollars spent on their time writing and increase their time spent in the field. “I think most people would want police officers to spend more time in the streets and less time typing in the office, and that’s exactly what this does for us,” Donovan said. Several Isle of Palms residents were in favor of the department utilizing the new tool. “There is really no holding back artificial intelligence at this point, so if we can really understand it and harness it and use it for good things like police work, I’m all for it,” resident Alex Fritts said. When the Isle of Palms pilot program is complete, the officers taking part will present about their experiences, and it will be up to the city and the police chief to decide if they continue to use it.
