Assisted Narrative is designed to let officers write incident reports more accurately and more quickly with help from AI
By Donny Jackson, Editor, Urgent Communications
Motorola Solutions recently announced the availability of an artificial-intelligence (AI) assistant that is designed to help law-enforcement personnel write incident reports more accurately and more quickly by leveraging data inputs from multiple information sources.
Motorola Solutions’ director of public-safety solutions, Jim Wolfinbarger said the new offering—known as Assisted Narrative, a component of the company’s Assist AI platform—always begins with an officer drafting a report based solely on his/her recollection of events. But AI “fact checks” this recollection by citing information from various sources—for example, sensor data, computer-aided dispatch (CAD) information, and video from the scene—to help ensure accuracy.
“One of the fundamental elements where I think Assisted Narrative draws a distinct differentiation from the balance of the market is its reliance upon up 10 different data sources … not just relying on a single source of truth,” Wolfinbarger said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications.
“We believe that the process that Assisted Narrative drives helps produce more accurate, comprehensive and owned reports that cut down on that type of return, which accelerates the workflows and allows people to focus on what’s most important: number one, accuracy, and number two, getting it done in a way that allows them—in good spirit and faith—to get back out on road to respond to calls for service and reducing crime.”
In addition to accelerating the report-writing process, Assisted Narrative is designed to help reduce the need for public-safety supervisors to return reports, because AI accesses multiple databases to confirm—or question—the accuracy of the initial draft, Wolfinbarger said.
“We believe that the process that Assisted Narrative drives helps produce more accurate, comprehensive and owned reports that cut down on that type of return, which accelerates the workflows and allows people to focus on what’s most important: number one, accuracy, and number two, getting it done in a way that allows them—in good spirit and faith—to get back out on road to respond to calls for service and reducing crime,” Wolfinbarger said.
Motorola Solutions’ executive vice president and chief technology officer, Mahesh Saptharishi echoed this sentiment.
“An officer’s police report is an extension of their word, and documenting a complete, accurate account is paramount to building trust,” said. “Assisted Narrative is designed differently from other report-writing tools. It’s built to save time, preserve officer memory, cross-check multiple sources of data for accuracy and maintain clear accountability.”
Agencies wanting to use Assisted Narrative need to have their personnel outfitted with Assist AI-enabled equipment, including as the APX Next radio or the new SVX body camera/remote speaker microphone, and is available at no additional cost to agencies with certain CommandCentral applications, Wolfinbarger said. As a cloud-based solution, Assisted Narrative can be implemented quickly by an agency—in fact, conducting training and establishing procedures likely will prove to be more time-consuming, he said.
“Deployment can be within days, or even hours—the cloud activation is very fast,” Wolfinbarger said.
Although AI plays a significant role writing an incident report via Assisted Narrative, Wolfinbarger repeatedly emphasized that the report is always initiated by an officer’s recollection of an event.
“They can do it verbally—using the SVX across Assist—or they could just type out elements of it to begin that process of documenting and really solidifying it within their brain their original observations and memories,” Wolfinbarger said. “That original notation is then supplemented by AI [leveraging] the richness of those multiple databases that affirm—or maybe point out irregularities or inconsistencies—to help ensure the accuracy.
“The officer is in charge of the report. It’s that original draft of the report that really helps to solidify it in an officer’s mind.”
Taking this approach is important—both for legal reasons and helping to ensure the report is as accurate as possible, according to Wolfinbarger.
“Research has shown that, if an officer’s recollection of an event is either generated from a report developed by AI or are watching other video, it’s not as inherently accurate as that initial observation,” he said.
“It’s that element that helps ensure that, when the officer is up on the stand [as a witness during a trial] and swears an oath to recall an event to the best of their ability, we’re putting them in position to win—that they are not a spectator in the formation of their report, but an active participant.”
