AI is rapidly moving into police work across the US as agencies search for ways to operate more efficiently while grappling with shrinking ranks and rising public demands. Developments range from automated traffic stop analysis to report generation systems and advanced evidence scanning tools.
Concerns continue to grow as the technology spreads far faster than regulatory frameworks, prompting warnings from experts who fear that unregulated systems may embed bias and inaccuracies deep inside the criminal justice process.
Police departments nationwide face persistent staffing shortages at a time when political leaders and communities are pressuring them to curb violent crime. A Police1 survey highlights how these shortages affect frontline work, with 75 percent of officers reporting that delays in backup responses stem from understaffing and 56 percent stating that limited personnel place them at greater risk during high hazard calls.
Generative AI tools are now being tested in states from California to Hawaii to help cut administrative burdens. San Francisco police are piloting Axons Draft One system, which turns body camera audio into draft incident reports for calls and lower severity cases.
Additional initiatives are underway in Georgia, where the South Fulton Police Department is collaborating with IBM to build a public safety platform capable of integrating multiple data streams to save labor hours, reduce costs and support crime pattern forecasting.
New applications are also emerging from private startups. Longeye, for instance, is working with 12 agencies including one in Akron Ohio to deploy systems that let detectives rapidly sift through hours of inmate calls, interviews and other material in search of key leads.
The AI policing market is projected to grow from 3.5 billion dollars in 2024 to more than 6.6 billion dollars by 2033.
Some agencies are helping shape these systems directly. Sno911 in Snohomish County near Seattle partnered with Aurelian to create Cora, an AI assistant that listens to 911 calls in real time and suggests follow up questions or critical instructions for dispatchers.
Civil liberties advocates caution that such technology could reinforce long standing biases while raising unresolved questions about data ownership and privacy. These concerns recently led Austin Texas to halt a behavioral analysis camera project in city parks after debates over civil rights and reliability.
Legal experts argue that privacy laws were crafted long before the modern digital ecosystem emerged, complicating oversight of new AI tools. The Electronic Frontier Foundation notes that technology has evolved in ways lawmakers never anticipated.
Supporters of AI adoption maintain that these systems are only meant to enhance investigative work rather than replace human judgment. Longeyes chief executive emphasizes that officers should treat AI as an aid rather than a courtroom authority, using it to pinpoint essential evidence before presenting findings to prosecutors or judges.
