The Hidden Costs of Manual Reporting in Police Departments
How much time does manual reporting cost your police department? What if you could increase productivity and reduce the workload? Here's what you should know.
Times are tough these days.
Law enforcement agencies face mounting pressure to improve efficiency and transparency. The public expects you to be everywhere, handling every case, delivering positive experiences every time, and doing everything by the book.
Of course, there's so much that needs to happen behind the scenes that far too many people don't know about, most of which is leaving officers burned out, stressed, and constantly feeling behind.
Statistics show that around 19% of the US police force is burned out at any one time, and this just isn't going to get the results people expect, nor how officers themselves want to operate (burnout is one of the most common reasons why officers leave the force).
Fortunately, there are solutions at hand.
For example, one area where technology can make a significant difference is police report writing. Officers often find themselves spending countless hours manually documenting incidents, diverting valuable time away from their primary duty of protecting the public.
Simple reports can take anywhere between 10 to 15 minutes, whereas more complex cases could take an entire shift or more. This is time that could be spent on so many other important tasks.
Innovative solutions like CLIPr are emerging to address this challenge.
CLIPr is an AI-powered tool that automatically generates police report drafts from body-worn camera footage, streamlining the documentation process and freeing up officers to focus on what they do best: keeping communities safe. Here are five ways CLIPr could help you.
CLIPr is essentially an AI-powered transcriber tool that processes the audio from the video and generates text-based notes and report drafts, ready for officers to review, edit and submit.
However, unlike your standard audio-to-text tools, CLIPr is explicitly designed for police departments and public safety professionals. This translates through the seamless integration between different systems and equipment types.
Most notably, CLIPr integrates with all bodycam and dashcam models that have audio recording capabilities. This means officers don't need to change their existing equipment or workflows to benefit from CLIPr's time-saving features.
Imagine this: an officer finishes their shift, docks or parks their bodycam, and the footage is automatically uploaded to CLIPr.
The AI then processes the audio, generating a detailed first draft report narrative while the officer attends to other duties.
This streamlined process eliminates the tedious task of manual data entry and review of hours of footage, freeing up valuable time for officers to focus on more critical tasks.
But it's not just about convenience.
In the UK, a 2023 report found that an increase in productivity (including finding ways to improve the output of admin tasks) could potentially save up to 38 million hours of police time, equivalent to putting 20,000 new officers onto the streets.
Productivity gains made possible through the use of cutting-edge tools.
By automating tedious processes, as CLIPr does with transcribing video and audio evidence, agencies can significantly reduce the administrative burden on officers, allowing them to dedicate more time to community engagement, crime prevention, and other core responsibilities.
This not only improves efficiency but also has the potential to boost officer morale, public relations, and expectations while simultaneously reducing burnout.
Accuracy is a necessity when it comes to policing, hence the use of recording equipment.
However, using this technology alone hasn't eradicated situations where officers forget important facts or insights. We're only human after all.
That said, CLIPr doesn't have that problem.
It meticulously documents each incident with precise, searchable CLIPr notes, significantly improving recall accuracy and detail for officers. This means no more racking your brain to remember specific details weeks or months after an event. Our searchable transcripts let the officer jump to any moment they recall hearing or saying within seconds.
CLIPr's AI acts like a second pair of eyes, capturing and preserving every crucial detail. It strictly adheres to the footage, generating reports based solely on the recorded events.
This ensures accuracy, consistency, and factual integrity, minimizing the risk of human error or bias.
And it does so with impressive accuracy, costing an average transcription accuracy of 90-95%.
View the CLIPr Public Safety Video
While impressive, CLIPr doesn't stop there.
It allows officers to review, edit and improve the drafts, ensuring the final report is as representative of what transpired during the incident as possible. It even has a CLIPr dictionary to help the Records Department to teach the CLIPr platform acronyms, slang and non-native English names to increase transcription accuracy and provide additional consistency to reports.
Perfect for accents, specific locational dialects, and otherwise dealing with the communicational nuances of your operating area.
With CLIPr, officers can rest assured that every incident is documented with the highest level of detail and accuracy, providing a reliable record of events for investigations, court proceedings, and internal reviews.
Time is an officer's most valuable resource.
Using solutions like CLIPr allows you to experience a productivity force multiplier.
In our research and experiences, we've seen that automating the report drafting process can reduce report writing time by up to 50%, allowing officers to accomplish more with their existing staff.
Imagine the possibilities if officers could reclaim half of the time they currently spend on report writing.
That's more time for proactive policing, community engagement, and follow-up investigations. It's also more time for training, professional development, and personal well-being through better work-life balance.
The benefits extend beyond individual officers.
It also means better budget management, since work is completed on time and without having to fork out for expensive overtime. It also helps improve overall department efficiency.
This means faster response times, more thorough investigations, and a greater focus on crime prevention.
Furthermore, reducing the administrative burden on officers can have a positive impact on morale and reduce burnout.
When officers feel supported and empowered to focus on their core duties, they are more likely to be engaged and effective in their work.
Language barriers have always presented significant challenges for law enforcement. That's a given.
To overcome this simply and to keep everyone on the same page, we designed CLIPr to break down these barriers with its impressive language translation capabilities.
Out of the box, CLIPr can recognize 32 languages in audio recordings and automatically translate them into English-language report drafts, making it an invaluable tool for officers working in diverse communities.
Imagine a scenario where an officer responds to an incident involving individuals who primarily speak Spanish.
With CLIPr, the officer can simply tag the incident as Spanish, and the AI technology will automatically transcribe and translate the dialogue into English, ensuring that all details are accurately captured in the report.
This again saves time but also improves the accuracy and completeness of reports in multilingual situations, ensuring that critical information is not lost in translation and that all parties involved are able to understand the details of the incident.
While we've touched on this already, it's worth pointing out that CLIPr is specifically designed to assist with the effective process of evidence management.
It's a paramount process - one made better than ever since CLIPr seamlessly integrates with existing Digital Evidence Management Systems (DEMS) and Records Management Systems (RMS), creating a streamlined workflow that saves time and reduces the risk of errors.
By integrating with DEMS, CLIPr eliminates the need for manual data entry and transfer, reducing the risk of human error and ensuring that all evidence is properly documented and accounted for.
Similarly, CLIPr's integration with RMS streamlines the process of generating and filing reports, making it easier for officers to access and share information with colleagues and other stakeholders.
While law enforcement agencies face mounting pressures from all sides, there are ways to improve operations with the goals of better efficiency and transparency, all through adopting a single solution like CLIPr.
And what could be better than helping officers streamline their report writing process, reducing administrative burden, and increasing their focus on their core mission: protecting the public.
With clear benefits, the chance to enhance your operations has never been so accessible.
If you're ready to experience the transformative power of CLIPr, book a demo today, or speak to one of our professional experts who can help answer any questions you may have.
See firsthand how CLIPr can help your department save time, reduce costs, improve officer morale, and move your operations into the modern AI age. Click here to get started.
