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The Seattle Police Department has stopped using an artificial intelligence platform designed to analyze body camera footage after pressure from the union representing officers.
Mike Solan, president of the Seattle Police Officers Association, told GeekWire on Thursday that the department was “basically spying on their employees,” and the union objected to the use of SPD technology from Chicago-based Trulio.
“None of this was negotiated with the union and the city. “That’s the first we’ve heard of it,” Solan said, using the technology to analyze body-camera audio to look for inappropriate officer behavior. “It violates the status quo. [collective bargaining agreement] In terms of the accountability process.
The department said last week that it had halted a pilot project aimed at proving the viability of Truleo’s technology “in response” to recent reports in Axios and GeekWire. The department declined to say who responded and how.
Truleo co-founder and CEO Anthony Tassone said in an emailed statement to GeekWire when asked if SPD had offered any reason to abandon the product: “The Seattle Police Union reacted negatively to SPD’s two-fold. Annual renewal with Trulio.
“It’s unfortunate that this particular association has responded this way because body camera analysis done in a responsible manner that protects civilian privacy is the future of police surveillance and training,” Tassone said.
Trulio first met with SPD in 2021, and the department became an “anchor client.”
The True software scans thousands of hours of body camera footage created by police departments. The technology looks for audio cues to help identify patterns, such as problems that patrol officers might encounter with the public. Departments can address problems with training before they escalate.
Solan said the Guild had a problem with a third-party vendor analyzing officers’ words with AI and flagging the words as sarcastic or sarcastic and inconsistent with the officers’ professionalism.
“The members were not informed that their body-worn video data was being compared with AI technology,” Solan said. I would add that they were spying on what was difficult for me on a human level, let alone on a staff level.
SPD is one of a handful of departments Trulio has identified as current clients, including departments in Alameda, Atwater and Vallejo, California, as well as departments in Florida, Alabama and Pennsylvania.
Recent reports on the technology have suggested how it could be widely implemented after the death of Tyr Nichols in Memphis. The New York Times reported that the police “issued orders that were confusing, conflicting and sometimes impossible to obey.”
Some have expressed concern that AI could misinterpret what it hears on body-camera audio recordings, such as nearby civilian conversations in which an officer is not involved. Os Case, a doctoral student in design and engineering at the University of Washington’s Human Center, spoke out against the use of AI in body-cameras.
Tassone called the company’s technology “a stark contrast” to the body camera recording and search technologies deployed by more than 1,000 police departments that don’t differentiate between civilian and officer audio.
“Truleo was selected by departments specifically for our unique ability to distinguish civilian voice from officer audio and focus our analysis and results on official language,” he said. With the support of their employees, we continue to empower police departments across the country because Trulio works.
SPD says it’s “too early to say any measurable results in the process” of using Truleo’s technology, but looks forward to future insights. After announcing the end of the project, he said, “SPD is committed to continuous improvement and evidence-based approaches to risk management, staff performance and police service delivery.”
Calling himself a “big fan” of new technology and new training, Solan said it’s important to bring back technologies that benefit society.
But noting that the Seattle Police Department has lost hundreds of officers over the past few years and 16 so far in 2023, Solan said he believes AI technology is “being used behind the scenes” as another example of why they are laying off.
“The problem here, in our view, is that this software is being used to unwittingly hold officers to a different level of accountability,” Solan added.
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