Police are getting a lift from artificial intelligence, and algorithms at the moment are able to doing this Preparation of police reports in minutes. The technology guarantees to make police reports more accurate and comprehensive and save officers time.
The Idea is straightforward: Take the audio transcript from a body camera worn by a police officer and leverage the text prediction capabilities of huge language models to write down a proper police report that might function the idea for a criminal prosecution. Similar to other areas which have enabled ChatGPT-like systems to write down on behalf of individuals, police can now get AI assistance to automate the dreaded paperwork.
The catch is that this document cannot write the primary draft of your English language coursework, but can resolve an individual's freedom in court. A Error, omission or hallucination can compromise the integrity of a prosecution or, worse, justify a false arrest. While law enforcement officials must approve the ultimate version, many of the text, structure and formatting is generated by AI.
Who – or what – wrote it?
Only until October 2025 Utah had demanded that the police even admit that they used an AI assistant to arrange their reports. That modified on October 10, when California became the second state to require transparent communication concerning the use of AI within the preparation of a police report.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 524 into lawAccording to which all AI-supported police reports have to be marked as having been written with the assistance of AI. The law also requires law enforcement agencies to keep up an audit trail that identifies the one who used AI to arrange a report, in addition to any video and audio utilized in preparing the report. It also requires authorities to retain the primary AI-generated draft for so long as the official report is retained, and prohibits an AI-generated draft from constituting an official's official statement.
The law is a major milestone in regulating AI in policing, but its passage also signifies that AI will develop into a very important a part of the criminal justice system.
If you’re behind bars due to a police report, you might have some questions. The first query that Utah and California now answer is: “Did the AI write that?” Basic transparency that an algorithm helped create an arrest report looks like the least a state can do before locking someone up. And this despite the incontrovertible fact that leading police technology corporations prefer it Axon I like to recommend such disclaimers be included of their reports, they will not be required.
Police departments in Lafayette, Indiana, and Fort Collins, Colorado, did this intentionally Disable transparency defaults based on an investigative news report on the AI Report Generators. Police chiefs also use Axon's Draft One products didn't even know Which reports were created by AI and which weren’t because officials simply cut and pasted the AI narrative into reports they said that they had written themselves. The practice bypassed all AI disclaimers and audit trails.
Lots of questions
Transparency is just that first step. Understanding the risks It is smart to depend on AI for police reports the second.
Technological questions arise about how the AI models were trained and what potential biases arise from reliance on previous police reports. Transcription questions arise about errors, omissions and mistranslations as police stops happen in chaotic, noisy and sometimes emotional contexts amid a mess of languages.
Finally, questions arise in court about how a lawyer should cross-examine an AI-generated document or whether the audit trails should be retained for expert evaluation or turned over to the defense.
Risks and consequences
The importance of California's law shouldn’t be only that the general public must pay attention to AI risks, but additionally that California considers AI risk in policing. I feel it is probably going that individuals will lose their freedom due to a document that was largely created by AI and without the difficult questions being satisfactorily answered.
Worse, in a criminal justice system that relies on plea bargaining greater than 95% Because the variety of cases which can be mostly misdemeanors are mostly misdemeanors, there may never be a possibility to confirm that the AI report captured the crime scene appropriately. In fact, in lots of these lower-level cases, the police report will form the idea for charging decisions, remands, motions, settlements, verdicts, and even probation revocations.
I consider that a criminal justice system that relies so heavily on police reports has a responsibility to be certain that police departments display not only transparency but additionally justice. At a minimum, this implies more states will follow Utah and California in passing laws regulating the technology, and police departments will follow best practices beneficial by the tech corporations.
But even that without might not be enough Critical assessments from courts, legal experts and criminal defense lawyers. The way forward for AI policing is just starting, however the risks exist already.
