The Triad police department has become the first in the state of Vermont to adopt artificial intelligence software for analyzing officers' body camera footage. Burlington police say they’ve had a manual system of reviewing body camera footage for the last 10 years. However, officers report that the new software is providing tools that can make those reviews much more robust and much more efficient, WXII reports. "[It's] built by cops, for cops," said Assistant Chief of Police Nick Wright. The Burlington police, partnering with Truleo, a body camera review software that utilized AI and was built with law enforcement in mind. "It also has some tools for the officers that provides us with transcripts of their interactions, summaries in order to make their performance better, and their field reports and investigative reports better as well when we submit them to the DA's office," said Wright, noting that the use of this tool came through a grant and partnership through the Police Executive Research Forum.
So far, the department says that A1 improves on the previous system of supervisors manually checking footage. "It's very random, and it covers about 1% of the amount of camera footage that they actually capture," said Wright. "Whereas in the period of time that we've been in this introductory phase with Truleo, they've reviewed 38,000 hours worth of video already." Wright said it would let his officers review their conduct when out in the field, letting them see and improve on their professionalism and how they respond to different scenarios. "This tool will just help them gain more experience as they get that instant feedback and that constant review," he said. "They can deal with what we call minor league mistakes before they ever turn into, like major-league disciplinary issues." When inquired about imperfections, acknowledging that AI might overlook certain aspects just as officers did during Wednesday's training for the program, it was noted that although the software performs much of the intensive work, supervisors will continue to play a role in reviewing footage.