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As agencies continue to face staffing and resource challenges, solutions that serve as force multipliers are critical, especially when it comes to time consuming tasks.
To gain more insight in this area and as part of our ongoing research and development, Axon conducted a digital evidence trends survey for 2024. With 750 respondents representing federal, state and local agencies large and small, our survey provides valuable insight to agencies and organizations as they mature their digital evidence strategies. Visit the Resource Center to gain access and learn more about the 2024 Digital Evidence Trends Report.
We found that a notable, timesaving development within the realm of digital evidence management is transcription technology powered by AI. Auto-transcription is a very new tool in digital evidence management, and the majority of officers have not yet experienced the benefits. In fact, 61% have never used auto-transcription as part of their digital evidence workflows, and only 7% of officers use it often or all the time. Let’s explore a few of these efficiency opportunities with transcription.
How transcription is being used by law enforcement
First up is to aid in report writing. According to our 2024 Digital Evidence Trends survey, the average officer spends 10-15 hours per week on paperwork. Report narratives can be one of the most time-consuming parts of the report writing process, but transcripts can help. With transcriptions, officers can identify key phrases, names, and even generate summaries from the transcript. Since we conducted our survey, a new tool called Draft One is leveraging transcripts to help with report writing even more. We'll discuss this later in the article.
Another finding from the 2024 trends report is that auto transcription increases the speed of evidence review. Features like Fast Evidence Review inside Axon Evidence allow officers to search the transcript of a video and jump to a specific moment. As an example, imagine a 45-minute BWC recording where someone allegedly used a racial slur. Instead of watching the entire 45-minute recording, an investigator could simply search the transcript and jump directly to the moment in the video where the slur was used.
Transcripts can also help investigators search for evidence. For instance, imagine an investigator receives 500 audio recordings between two individuals, and then needs to find any instances where a specific name was mentioned. They might spend two full days listening to the audio clips, only to find the name in file number 387. Alternatively, if they have a feature like Transcript Keyword Search inside Axon Evidence, they could simply search the name and find all the relevant files in a matter of seconds. To learn more about Transcript Keyword Search, watch this demo.
Transcription is also helping supervisors expedite the BWC audit/review process. Tools like Priority Ranked Video Audit (PRVA) allows leaders to assign point values to certain words, and then receive notifications when a specific point threshold is met because of the words being spoken. This allows command staff to quickly identify both positive and negative interactions with the public and react according to their best judgment.
Auto-transcripts can also help expedite the process of creating official transcripts that can be shared with other agencies or in court. Although auto-transcripts are never perfect, there are tools that can help officers quickly edit and verify the transcript before sharing it widely.
Lastly, transcripts can help expedite audio redactions. Rather than watching an entire video and manually redacting any sensitive information, investigators can search the transcript for sensitive words and then automatically redact every instance of that word. This can reduce the time required for audio redaction from hours to minutes.
In summary, while auto-transcription is a newer solution, it is already saving time for officers who have adopted it. As transcription technology advances and awareness grows, we see this trend making a significant difference for police agencies who are looking for force multipliers.
Beyond transcription: how Draft One saves officers even more time
As you’ve seen in this article, auto-transcription is the foundation for many different time-saving opportunities for law enforcement officers. It should be no surprise then, that auto-transcribing plays a key role in one of our newest solutions: Draft One.
Draft One force multiplies agencies and saves officers multiple hours every week by automatically drafting police report narratives based on body-worn camera audio. Safeguards require that every report is reviewed and approved by a human officer, ensuring accuracy and ownership of the information. Draft One is also carefully calibrated to prevent speculation or embellishments, ensuring that the generated narratives are factual and reliable. With Draft One, officers spend less time writing reports and more time on what matters.
The synergistic relationship between Axon Body Worn Cameras, auto-transcription, Axon Respond and Draft One is yet another example of how agencies get the most out of Axon solutions by leveraging the ecosystem as a whole. Draft One works with 3rd party Records Management solutions as well, but also seamlessly integrates with Axon Records.
As seen in this case study, Draft One has the capacity to reduce report writing time by 50% or more.
For all law enforcement agencies, especially those that may struggle with low employment levels or overwhelmed staff, Draft One is a true force multiplier. Less time spent on reports means more time spent responding to calls for service, reducing crime and supporting communities. Learn more about how Draft One works, the features and the benefits in our Draft One product page.
Download the full trends report
The world of digital evidence continues to grow and evolve. New technology is helping law enforcement close more cases than ever before, but also presenting new sets of challenges. Axon is on a mission to Protect Life, Preserve Truth and Accelerate Justice. Learn more about the latest data and trends in our 2024 Digital Evidence Trends Report.