This year’s International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference (IACP 2018) proved one thing – law enforcement is at-the-ready to test and implement new tools, methods and techniques – all in their quest to better protect and serve our communities.
We had the opportunity to showcase our powerful police reporting solutions during this year’s International Association of Police Chiefs this week in Orlando, the preeminent event for public safety professionals. During discussions with police chiefs, their command staff, and officers alike, I was amazed at their perceptiveness and readiness to embrace new technologies – all in their quest to better protect and serve.
Of all my talks and walks through the convention floor, it’s the meetings and discussions with these professionals that have their “feet on the street” that has me most excited about the future of police technology, and the opportunities we can create together to help them fulfill their mission.
I imagine a day when officers will be completely alleviated of their documentation burdens – where every police incident report will be created in a matter of minutes versus hours – simply by speaking. Where, instead of manually distributing reports throughout the department, and ultimately to prosecutors, they will be created, tagged and routed via automated workflows, so mission-critical information can be delivered in the right reports at the right time.
I think about all the future opportunities with ambient voice – where detectives will one day discard pen and paper and capture hours of interviews within interrogation rooms speaking into a single device; ultimately converting this audio into searchable data that can help to quickly pinpoint critical moments and move criminal proceedings along.
I marvel at the leaps and bounds our industry has already made with artificial intelligence, where departments are beginning to mine data from reports, video, and audio to help analyze crimes and anticipate, prevent and respond to them using predictive tools.
And I can envision a day when all law enforcement is using AI-enabled “virtual partners,” where first responders – police, fire, EMS – can actively monitor radio communications and flag and share critical language, like “gun,” over the cacophony of incoming noise to help them better respond to emergency situations.
Talking and learning about all the powerful, new police technologies that are coming into the market, at conferences like IACP, always makes me excited, and humbled by law enforcement; a community we, at Nuance, are privileged to serve.