Christmas came rather early for the Basalt Police Department (BPD) this year.
For about the past few weeks, the midvalley law enforcement agency has been using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to help its patrol officers knock out otherwise time-consuming paperwork. Called Code Four, an AI assistant launched eight months ago by 19-year-old MIT dropouts George Cheng and Dylan Nguyen, the program automatically transcribes body camera footage into clear, department-ready police reports.
The reports are then reviewed and edited by the officers.
“It’s slick,” BPD Lt. Aaron Munch, a 24-year law enforcement veteran, told The Sopris Sun this past week. “I wish I could’ve used this for my entire career. I definitely wish I had it on a lot of cases over the years.”
The trial run of this technology comes at a time when BPD, which typically responds to an average of 7,000 calls each year, is short-staffed by five patrol officers. So for the six patrol officers and one community resource officer currently on roster for the department, spending less time behind a desk and more time on the streets is more critical than ever before, according to Munch.
Chen said Code Four is capable of cutting an average of about “two hours every single day on high beat reports.”
“If we can’t find a way to budget for this,” Munch said, “we might be shedding some tears.”
BPD began considering the use of body cameras in 2018, with anticipated cost to the taxpayers at about $7,000 a year, according to an Aspen Public Radio report in September 2018. Meanwhile, the State of Colorado implemented mandatory use of body cameras by July 1, 2023.
Basalt police officers wear body cameras from a company called Axon. According to Cheng, the content captured from these existing body cameras end up in the Axon ethernet cloud, and from there Code Four essentially clones all this content and, thus, the transcription is automatically produced for any given officer.
“Think of us as a layer above — we are a software system above their system,” Cheng said. “We’ll get it set up for you in five minutes.”
According to Cheng, Code Four currently provides services to 36 law enforcement agencies across the U.S. In addition to Basalt, the Meeker Police Department is testing out its AI technology.
“I believe that everyone in the future will have an AI report writing system in their departments,” Cheng said. “I think the benefits definitely outweigh the cons, and it’s about making the technology good enough to the point where agencies will take a look at it and be like, ‘Yeah, this is good stuff and this will actually help us save time writing our reports.’”
Since BPD is currently in “demo mode” with Code Four, Munch said the Town has yet to identify long-term budgeting for the program. When the lieutenant, however, was asked if the AI technology will help save time in the long-run, he chuckled and said, “Hours and hours and hours.”
“I think the biggest benefit is my officers can get on the street and go do more things. They can be more visible instead of having to sit there and type away on a keyboard,” Munch said. “It just frees them up a lot quicker and they’re not bogged down by more paperwork.”