AUSTIN, Texas — An artificial intelligence (AI) assistant is now taking some police reports for the Austin Police Department (APD).
APD announced Thursday that it has partnered with Versaterm Public Safety's Case Service to launch a non-emergency online reporting system via ireportaustin.com. According to APD, Case Service is an AI assistant that instantly communicates with community members through text, web, mobile and voice.
"The AI assistant conducts a full interview with the person filing a report and provides key information to the police department," APD said in a press release. "This system allows the report to be accepted into the official offense report database within hours or a similar time frame as if an officer wrote the report. This platform reduces wait times for community members and speeds up the investigation process."
For months, Austinites have reported waiting weeks to submit a police report for crimes such as burglary, minor assaults or a noisy neighbor to begin an officer response or police investigation.
Earlier this year, the KVUE Defenders shared the story of a woman who called Austin 311 to report a neighborhood crime – only to find herself still waiting for a call back from APD two weeks later. The Defenders learned that her case was sitting in a pile of nearly 6,000 people awaiting a return call to file a police report.
On Thursday, APD said it is "confident" that the new Crime Service technology will "streamline the reporting process, alleviate the current backlog for APD non-emergency requests submitted via 3-1-1, and provide community members personalized attention to their incidents."
To file a report online, the situation must involve no immediate danger to people or property, the suspect must no longer be on the scene and the reporting party must be 17 years old or older and have a valid email address.
APD said the online system accepts the following report types:
- Assault (minor or no injury, excluding domestic violence)
- Burglary that does not involve fire/arson
- Counterfeiting or forgery
- Damaged property or graffiti
- Fraud
- Harassment
- Identity theft
- Illegal use of a credit or debit card
- Lost or missing property (excluding narcotic prescription medication, vehicle license plates, and firearms)
- Minor, non-criminal child custody issues for documentation only
- Shoplifting reports
- Theft (excluding prescriptions, firearms, explosives, vehicle license plates, and motor vehicles of any kind)
- Threats (excluding domestic violence)
- Trespassing (suspect no longer on scene)
The department said once a report is submitted, the reporting party will receive confirmation via email with the assigned case number. If a supplement needs to be added later, the reporting party can create a new report and provide the original case number when prompted.
Case Service supports multiple languages, including English, Arabic, French, Hindi, Korean, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Spanish and Vietnamese, among other languages.
APD said upon successful deployment of this first phase, it plans to expand the use of Case Service further.