Agency becomes first to employ automated BWC analytics
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Truleo, the leading automated body camera review and analysis technology company for law enforcement, today announced that the Richland County Sheriff’s Department in South Carolina has signed on to use the company’s body camera data analysis platform to optimize law enforcement interactions with the public.
Truleo uses artificial intelligence to process body camera videos for departments across the country to help automate supervision, facilitate coaching, and promote police professionalism. The technology automatically detects critical events such as uses of force, pursuits, frisks, and non-compliance incidents, and screens for both professional and unprofessional officer language so supervisors can then praise or review officers’ conduct. The Richland County Sheriff’s Department becomes the first law enforcement agency in South Carolina, and the first sheriff’s department in the nation, to deploy the Truleo technology.
“We are proud to be working with the Richland County Sheriff’s Department,” said Truleo CEO and co-founder Anthony Tassone. “The vast majority of these interactions are positive and we want to celebrate that with the deputies, their command staff, and the general public.”
The Richland County Sheriff’s Department boasts a rich and storied history that spans many decades. The department serves as a cornerstone of the county’s law enforcement and public safety activities. It has evolved into a well-equipped force, with its main goal of ensuring the safety and well-being of residents and visitors in Columbia and the entire county. Deputies work tirelessly to foster strong community relationships, emphasizing community policing and proactive crime prevention strategies.
“I’m looking forward to working with Truleo and seeing the improvement it makes in training our officers,” said Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott. “I believe it will facilitate coaching to ensure our deputies continue to grow and learn new skills as well as monitor their wellness so we have the healthiest workforce possible.”
The department will be partnering with researchers from Clemson University and the University of South Carolina to study the effectiveness of Truleo and the changes it can make for deputies.
“Our team includes some of the most experienced policing and body-camera researchers in the world,” said Dr. Ian Adams, a professor at the University of South Carolina. “We are excited to be on the cutting edge of research into how advanced technology can use body camera footage to improve contacts between the public and police officers – on both sides of the equation.”
In police departments that do not use this technology, thousands of hours of footage are in need of review every week – but because of limited resources, less than 1% of the footage is ever analyzed. Truleo’s technology analyzes the footage automatically, even separating out civilian and officer language. Truleo eliminates any issues of civilian privacy through a set of capabilities known as Responsible Transcription™, using several layers of protection such as auto-redaction of any personally identifiable civilian data (PII) and filtering out civilian speech entirely.
Truleo can convert all of a department’s body camera videos into searchable insights, designed to provide a more comprehensive review to facilitate coaching. This conversion saves a supervisor’s time and creates a more efficient performance review process.
Truleo is currently being implemented in dozens of police departments across the country, where it is having a significant impact. One department in California, for example, saw a 36% drop in the use of force by its officers after implementing Truleo technology.
“I believe [Truleo] will facilitate coaching to ensure our deputies continue to grow and learn new skills as well as monitor their wellness so we have the healthiest workforce possible,” said Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott.
About Truleo
Truleo analyzes police body camera videos using artificial intelligence to help promote police professionalism. Truleo partnered with FBI National Academy alumni to build models that detect critical events and deconstruct officers’ language into professionalism metrics to help agencies promote best practices, train new officers, and mitigate risk. To learn more about Truleo’s mission to improve trust in the police with body camera analytics, visit www.truleo.co.