HEBER CITY, Utah — An artificial intelligence that writes police reports had some explaining to do earlier this month after it claimed a Heber City officer had shape-shifted into a frog.
However, the truth behind that so-called magical transformation is simple.
"The body cam software and the AI report writing software picked up on the movie that was playing in the background, which happened to be 'The Princess and the Frog,'" Sgt. Keel told FOX 13 News. “That’s when we learned the importance of correcting these AI-generated reports.”
Earlier this month, the department began testing an AI software called Code Four. The software startup created by George Cheng and Dylan Nguyen, both 19 years old and MIT dropouts, kicked off earlier this year. The software generates police reports from body camera footage in hopes of reducing paperwork and allowing officers to be out in the field more.
To see how the system works, FOX 13 News rode along with Keel for a demonstration as the department staged a mock traffic stop to test whether the AI would produce another unusual report.
"Hi, I'm Rick with the Heber PD. The reason I'm stopping you today is for..." Keel said during the demonstration.
Back at the police department, the AI generated a report with timestamps from the mock traffic stop. This time, the report was fairly normal, but still needed corrections. The software works in both English and Spanish and can track tone and sentiment as people are talking.
Keel says one of the major draws is that the software saves them time, as writing reports typically takes 1-2 hours.
"I'm saving myself about 6-8 hours weekly now," Keel said. "I'm not the most tech-savvy person, so it's very user-friendly."
Aside from Code Four, the department is also testing a similar software called Draft One.
Code Four costs about $30 per officer each month. Keel said the trial run for Code Four wraps up next month, but department officials say they plan to continue using the AI technology; it's just a matter of which system.
