○Police officer Wendy Venegas spoke gently in Spanish to a 14-year-old boy standing on the side of the road in a small residential area in East Palo Alto. The girl’s face was swollen from crying so much, and she calmly explained what had happened.
Venegas later explained that the girl’s father had caught her and her boyfriend “doing something” that morning, and that the father had either hit or shoved the boy. Now, the police arrived and questioned all three people. Everything up to this point was standard procedure.
But when it came time to compile a report on the case, Venegas had the help of a new assistant: a cutting-edge artificial intelligence tool called Draft One.
East Palo Alto is a small, working-class city that feels worlds apart from nearby Silicon Valley, and several California counties have begun using or testing AI, including Campbell, San Mateo, Bishop, and Fresno. . It is powered by software developed by Axon, an industry leader in body cameras and Tasers. Axon said the program will allow officers to produce more objective reports in less time. But as more agencies deploy these types of tools, some experts are wondering whether we are giving artificial intelligence too much of a role in the criminal justice system.
“We forget that that document truly plays a central role in decisions that change people’s lives,” said Andrew Ferguson, a criminal law professor at American University’s Washington School of Law who wrote the first law review. ” he said. article He plans to publish AI-powered police reports next year.
From documenting the details of complex murders to basic records of stolen bicycles, police reports are at the heart of police work.
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Source: www.theguardian.com
