When Deputy Dylan Diemer of the Missoula County (Montana) Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) drops a DUI suspect at the county jail, he doesn’t sit down to start the paperwork. Instead, he docks his body camera, uploads the video, emails a case number and heads back out on patrol. For a short report, a draft can land in his inbox within an hour.
That routine has increased what Diemer can accomplish during a shift, enabling him to make three DUI arrests in a single shift versus one or two.
CopScript is a cloud-based technology that uses advanced machine reasoning AI to turn bodycam video into court-ready police reports. In the hour it takes to create a report from Diemer’s bodycam video, he can be back out on patrol. And when the report comes back — whether he’s at the station or somewhere else in the 2,600 square miles of Missoula County — Diemer can review and submit the report to the case file, typically within the usual hours of his shift.
In Missoula County, the sheriff’s office polices the unincorporated towns that have no department of their own. Deputies respond to the same kinds of calls as any other community, only spread out across a vast geographic area. Patrol runs in shifts of seven, made up of a sergeant, a corporal and five deputies, with a minimum of five on duty. Time spent writing reports has a cost, especially in a small department.
“Every time [deputies] are taken off the street to do reports — which are very important and very vital — that is taking away somebody who can’t be out there being proactive within the community,” said Sheriff Jeremiah Petersen. “You start off with only five deputies, and you’ve got somebody that’s off the street, that means their partners are having to pick up their slack.”
Office policy is to finish reports before the end of a shift, especially when someone is in custody. That sometimes means overtime.
“Overtime costs money, and we only have so much of that,” Petersen said.
Before using CopScript to create reports, Diemer would put his body camera video on one monitor and a blank document on the other, making notes as he transcribed the video in real time. A complex domestic disturbance could take 2½–3 hours to document, and fatigue made it worse.
“You’re typing a report at 4 a.m. at the end of your night shift,” Diemer said. “How much detail are you missing? And how much are you just rushing through just to get it done?”
CopScript can help with that.
Developed by SoftScript, a U.S.-based company with 25 years of expertise in delivering documentation solutions for the medical industry, CopScript helps law enforcement agencies reduce paperwork and improve report quality at a significant savings of time and money, calculated in minutes saved per report and overtime costs avoided. CopScript even guarantees that agencies will save over 40% of what it would cost to do the report writing themselves.
Why MCSO said yes to CopScript
When Petersen heard about CopScript, it wasn’t just another product pitch. It was the answer to a challenge MCSO had long confronted: how to keep a visible presence in the community, despite the same scarcity of resources that beleaguers most law enforcement agencies.
Cutting corners on report quality was never an option. Reports are important and demand a deputy’s full attention. Details can make the difference between a successful prosecution and one full of holes.
The value of video
As any law enforcement officer knows, body language can convey additional details, such as a subject going into a “tripod position” with hands on the face, a suspect sweating heavily or even a voice that rises to yelling.
Because CopScript creates a narrative report from bodycam video as well as audio, reports capture more than what was said — they capture critical visual context like officer positioning, subject movement, evidence location, environmental conditions and non-verbal actions. “It does a really good job with those physical cues,” explained Diemer.
In one instance, the CopScript report matched a verbal theft description of a recovered hoverboard, down to details like ‘white and black with silver rims,’ that exactly matched the description in the theft report without Diemer needing to say a word on camera.
CopScript has also changed how Diemer handles interviews. “Quotes are awesome in reports. We often forget them in law enforcement,” Diemer said. “I don’t spend time on interviews or on scenes with my notebook out trying to take notes and not paying attention to the interview anymore. I spend a lot more time just being involved in the conversation because I know [CopScript]’s going to compile something.”
Diemer also sees promise using CopScript in investigations, where detectives spend days rewatching four- to six-hour interviews, and in rambling statements that jump across years, since the draft can place details in chronological order.
Petersen says video-based reporting also helps with accuracy.
“That’s one of video’s greatest advantages: It can capture details deputies may overlook while managing several things at once,” said Petersen. “Divided attention is a challenge in law enforcement, and reviewing footage afterward can reveal important information missed in the moment. Even small details, such as someone walking in the background or the license plate of a passing vehicle, can help us piece together what happened and establish a timeline as we investigate a call. This tool allows [deputies] to be more detailed and allows them to ensure that those facts are not being missed.”
The CopScript workflow
Diemer and one other deputy piloted CopScript and Diemer is now the agency’s point person for product development. Between calls, he docks his body camera so the video uploads, creates a case in their digital evidence management system and emails the case number to CopScript’s support inbox.
Adding “stat” to the request moves a case up the queue. The draft comes back as an editable Word document by secure county email. Then Diemer proofreads it, edits where needed and pastes the final narrative into the agency’s mobile data system.
More time on patrol, less at the keyboard
Diemer estimates CopScript saves him 70% to 75% of his report-writing time. A typical proofread takes five to 10 minutes, plus two to three minutes of edits. In one recent case, CopScript acknowledged the request at 11:35 a.m. and returned a two-page report at 12:18 p.m.
That time lets him say yes to calls he might otherwise skip. “It’s only going to take me 10 minutes versus taking me off the street for an hour,” Diemer said.
While only one patrol shift of seven uses it now, others in the department are eager to adopt it.
Petersen thinks the investment in CopScript is well worth the benefits. “I think it’s worth it because it allows us to be more of a force multiplier. Even though we only have a small number of deputies out at a time, we’re not taking them off the street. So they’re out, they’re being seen, they’re making those proactive stops.”
The tool still needs a human
Diemer is open about the tool’s limits. Stray audio can steer a draft off course. If another deputy arrives and starts talking about an unrelated call, or a subject says something off-topic early in an interview, the report can drift. Diemer notes the timestamps to cut when he submits the case. He also narrates more than he used to, reading CAD notes aloud and explaining why he’s heading to an interview so the system knows who is a witness and who is a suspect. A rough draft can still take 25 to 30 minutes to fix, though he said that’s rare.
Review remains the deputy’s job. “It still ends up having to be your words,” Diemer said. “When it comes to report submission, it’s not CopScript that’s getting it wrong, it’s you. You’re failing to proof your report.”
Petersen added that deputies still need to put in “how they felt, what they smelled, because it’s not picking up on those things.”
Integration is a work in progress, too. Some forms, such as the implied consent form, aren’t connected yet, though Diemer said CopScript has offered to add them and they are awaiting county IT approval. One that integration with the agency’s mobile data system and NIBRS autofill happens, the system will auto populate.
“That’s really where a lot of our time is wasted — checking NIBRS boxes,” said Diemer. “Once it can autofill all of that, I suspect I will spend just five to 20 minutes of editing time.”
Howard Wisnicki, chief executive officer of SoftScript, elaborates on the time savings aspect. “You have to define what CopScript is. If you look at it as a tool that turns video to a well-written narrative report, we are currently seeing many reports coming back where the officer has no edit needs whatsoever,” he said. “It’s taken us many years to get to this point. Thus, we are seeing accuracy and time savings for our ‘video recognition’ in the 98% plus range.
“For complete reporting responsibilities, there are numerous fields that officers are required to fill in. That’s the easier part. We already have the ability to automate this to autofill and streamline the delivery process. Once Missoula County Sheriff’s Office’s IT department gives us additional access, the overall time savings for the overall process will be in the mid-90% range.”
From one shift to the whole office
For agencies running short-staffed, hours spent behind a keyboard are hours not spent in the community. A tool like CopScript doesn’t change who is responsible for the report. It changes how much of a shift the report consumes, and for Diemer, that time now goes back into proactive work.
“My motto that I have implemented in my term as the sheriff is ‘safe communities through proactive citizen engagement and dedicated public service.’ I want to provide the best service I can. I want our streets to be safe in this community. I live here, my family lives here, and I want it safe for everyone that lives here and visits Missoula County,” said Petersen. “By allowing our deputies to spend more time out on the streets, being proactive, being seen, I think the streets are safer. And therefore, I think that the citizens would be very happy with the fact that money is being spent to keep them safer.”
