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Phoenix pilots Axon AI report writer in Mountain View Precinct through December
Phoenix police began a 90-day trial of Axon’s AI tool, which drafts incident reports from officers’ body-camera audio. Officers must check and correct each draft; the city says it will review the pilot’s results before deciding what comes next.
Phoenix police are testing an artificial intelligence tool that drafts incident reports from officers’ body-camera audio, with the stated goal of reducing paperwork and freeing officers for other duties.
The 90-day pilot began in early October and runs through Dec. 31. It is limited to personnel in certain bureaus at the department’s Mountain View Precinct, and the department is using Axon Draft One at no charge during the trial.
Phoenix Vice Mayor Ann O’Brien said officers have long raised the time required to write reports as a concern. Officials will assess whether the tool helps officers answer more calls, reduces overtime and shortens report-writing time, she said.
Axon, the Scottsdale-based company that makes the software, says it can cut report-writing time in half. That is a company claim, not a result established by the Phoenix pilot, which is too new to evaluate, O’Brien said.
Participating officers are trained to narrate what they observe during calls. Drafts are generated from those narrations, and officers must review and correct the reports before submitting them. O’Brien stressed that accuracy matters because county prosecutors use the reports in charging decisions and court cases.
The city expects to examine pilot data at the end of the three-month period and then decide whether to take further action. The trial’s results will help determine whether less time spent on paperwork translates into more time responding to calls and serving the community.