Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) are transforming already-proven technology into essential tools for today’s police officers and prosecutors.
It starts with a welcome innovation: combining a remote speaker mic and a body camera, two indispensable pieces of kit for officers. By merging critical communications with evidential video, officers have one less device to worry about in the heat of the moment – and AI/ML takes things to the next level, easing the workload of officers on the street while beefing up data insights and situational awareness for command staff. Prosecutors, meanwhile, have another evidence source to help close more cases.
That’s the rationale behind Motorola Solutions’ new SVX, a video remote speaker microphone that integrates with Assist, the company’s new AI-powered service platform. Together, they combine savvy equipment design with intelligent algorithms to help police and prosecutors make smarter decisions and close more cases.
“The way we like to think about Assist is that information shouldn’t be something you have to search for or find,” said Mahesh Saptharishi, executive vice president and chief technology officer with Motorola Solutions. “Information is something that should come to you, given the context of what is happening.”
In context, it works like this: An officer pulls over a car for speeding. When approaching the stopped car, the officer queries the car’s license number via SVX – Motorola Solutions’ AI algorithms then compare this license number to recent crime reports.
In a few seconds, SVX tells the officer the car was used in an armed robbery 15 minutes earlier. If things go sideways, the officer can trigger SVX to start recording – and live streaming – by simply unholstering their weapon or pressing their radio’s emergency button. Accordingly, the officer can focus on deescalating the situation, while still remaining secure in the knowledge that control staff are watching them remotely. Once the footage has been uploaded to the backend software, evidence technicians can create transcripts to verify key moments.
All this information gives officers and commanders a decided advantage when threats to public safety erupt.
More information when and where you need it
Motorola Solutions collaborated with over 30 agencies and more than 150 users to develop SVX and its supporting AI platform. The primary motivation behind this extensive research was to get critical data to the people who need it as fast as possible.
“In this line of work, the worst feeling is knowing a key piece of information that would’ve changed your approach didn’t make it to you – that it was buried somewhere,” Saptharishi said. AI can make relevant information proactively available, serving it up before officers, dispatchers and supervisors even ask for it, he added.
Police pros spend years on the streets honing their intuitions by learning to notice things. AI can never hope to replace those purely human skills. But it can augment human perception. The company’s Assist technology can use evidential footage and radio communications to support an officer’s recollection of the incident, and notify them if their reporting doesn’t add up.
“Assist can support and verify their perspective, including identifying discrepancies,” Saptharishi said. “For example, Assist may flag that ‘the car is black (per video footage), not blue,’ a finding that must be confirmed by a human.
“This is about augmenting human memory versus replacing it. We call this ‘good friction’,” Saptharishi added. “We’re designing to augment people, but it’s incredibly important to make sure there is no blind trust and overreliance on AI. This is critical in the face of courtroom scrutiny and upholding justice.”
James Wolfinbarger, retired chief with the Colorado State Patrol and territory vice president with Motorola Solutions, concurred: “We operate and apply AI in a way that ensures that we maintain the human element of decision-making and final accountability with regard to when and how it’s applied.”
How SVX and Assist optimize law enforcement
Body cameras give police and prosecutors a powerful, first-perspective of an incident, as it unfolded in real time. Motorola Solutions’ SVX goes one step further, capturing the radio communications associated with an incident as well. That means they can paint a compelling story of how, and when key decisions were made. But the little things still matter: an ergonomic design makes it easy to use in the field. Bluetooth connectivity eliminates the microphone cable. Programmable buttons let officers and departments decide which functions go where.
All these individual features gain a quantum leap in utility when streamed into an AI-enhanced software platform that does things like:
Accelerating and automating paperwork. Conversational AI translates voice recordings into transcripts that sharply reduce the time required to type in reports. Algorithms in the Assist program also can identify evidence from data feeds and help officers fold it into their reports. The software also is smart enough to notice gaps between an officer’s reporting and supporting evidence to build stronger legal cases.
Combining and managing data streams. Police have audio/video feeds coming in from body cameras, smartphone conversations and many other sources. Assist helps oversee these streams and organize them for after-incident analysis and evidence for court cases.
Tagging and classifying incidents. Officers in the field can create verbal tags for incidents like traffic stops or arrests, making it easier to document and organize data that SVX collects. This, in turn, also improves the analytics commanders use to gain insight on crime patterns and operational effectiveness.
Gathering and anonymizing evidence. Technicians can use the software to easily redact private or personally identifiable information, such as the names and faces of those who appear in body camera footage.
Strengthening your information ecosystem
Motorola Solutions software puts AI work to help police and prosecutors synthesize data from:
● 9-1-1 caller audio, video and images
● Drone video footage
● City-owned camera systems
● Business owned camera networks
● Bodycam audio-video
● License plate recognition software
● In-car audio/video devices
● Two-way radio conversations
● Crime scene sound, images and video
Machine learning algorithms can spot key objects in still images, video and audio that humans miss. Software also can be trained to find specific items in video feeds, saving people from hours of watching or listening where nothing of interest happens.
While ensuring its software can handle data from a wide variety of sources, Motorola Solutions stayed focused on the real-world issues public safety pros encounter every day. The SVX device, for instance, uses noise-reduction technologies that filter out blaring sirens and other background sounds to ensure that voices remain clear and easy to understand in any environment.“It’s truly remarkable,” Wolfinbarger said.
