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Police test new AI tools designed to skirt transparency
Portland and other departments are testing new AI tools
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A new report from the Electronic Frontier Foundation reveals that Draft One, the AI transcription software piloted by Portland and several other law enforcement agencies, is a transparency nightmare. According to EFF, the new tech "seems deliberately designed to avoid audits that could provide any accountability to the public."
Draft One takes the audio from body cameras and generates reports for officers using AI. (Conveniently, many of the body cameras are also provided by Axon, the same company that makes Draft One.) Officers are then given the option to edit the report or to accept the AI-written report as-is. The final report does not track which parts of a police report were written by officers, and which were written by AI. According to EFF, the omission of this kind of basic feature — akin to a tracked change in a Word doc — is a deliberate one.
[W]hen a police report includes biased language, inaccuracies, misinterpretations, or even outright lies, the record won't indicate whether the officer or the AI is to blame. That makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to assess how the system affects justice outcomes, because there is little non-anecdotal data from which to determine whether the technology is junk.
The Somerset County Sheriff's office was the first department in Maine to deploy the tech, signing a $840k contract last year. The Cumberland County Sheriff's office expects to deploy Draft One this summer. Currently, the Portland Police use Draft One for cases they don’t expect to end up in court. The Portland Police shared with the Bangor Daily News in December that they are “taking it slow” and working with the district attorney’s office to draft best practices on the use of the software.
The speed of adoption is just one concern. The ACLU sounded the alarm in December, releasing an in-depth document on the problems posed by AI transcription software. The group recommends against law enforcement use of AI transcription software.
Police departments across the country are quickly adopting new technology, and Portland is no exception. Last year, Portland Police obtained a $67,500 virtual reality system to reportedly train officers on life-threatening situations. Last fall, the Portland PD requested to obtain a new surveillance drone for the department. As of writing, the Portland PD do not yet have a drone and the acquisition did not make its way through this year’s budget process.
The latest public safety update from the Portland Police reveals violent crime in 2025 to be trending down, citing that "If current trends hold, 2025 could end with the lowest total violent crimes in the past three years." Other statistics on property crime, service calls, and arrests are trending to be on par with 2024.
The Burn’s founding editors are Em Burnett, Nick Schroeder, and Emma Reynolds.
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