The Seattle Police Department discontinued its use of an artificial intelligence platform designed to analyze body-cam footage because of pushback from the union that represents officers.
Mike Solan, president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, told GeekWire on Thursday that “basically the department was spying on their employees” and that the union objected to SPD’s use of technology from Chicago-based startup Truleo.
“None of that was ever bargained with the union and the city. This is the first we’ve heard of it,” Solan said of the use of the technology to analyze body-cam audio in search of potentially inappropriate officer behavior. “It’s in violation of our current [collective bargaining agreement] in terms of the accountability process.”
The department said last week that it stopped a pilot project aimed at validating the functionality of Truleo’s tech “in light of reactions” to recent reports in Axios and GeekWire. The department declined to specify who reacted in what way.
When asked whether SPD provided any reason for abandoning its use of his product, Anthony Tassone, co-founder and CEO of Truleo, said in an emailed statement to GeekWire that he was told “the Seattle Police union reacted negatively upon learning of SPD’s two-year renewal with Truleo.”
“It’s unfortunate this particular union reacted this way because body camera analytics done in a responsible way that protects civilian privacy is the future of police supervision and coaching,” Tassone said.
Truleo first connected with SPD in 2021, and the department became an “anchor customer.”
Truleo says its software scans recordings associated with the many thousands of hours of body-cam footage generated by police departments. The technology looks for audio clues to help identify patterns, such as problems patrol officers may have interacting with the public. Departments can then address issues through training before problems escalate.
Solan said the Guild had a problem with a third-party vendor analyzing officers’ words with AI and flagging those words for such things as sarcasm or voice inflection and rating it against the officers’ professionalism.
“The members weren’t told that their body-worn video data was being compared to an AI technology,” Solan said. “I’ll double down that they were being spied on, which to me is egregious on a human level, let alone an employee level.”
SPD was among a handful of departments that Truleo had identified as current customers, including in the California cities of Alameda, Atwater and Vallejo, as well as departments in Florida, Alabama and Pennsylvania.
Recent reports on the technology noted how it could be more widely adopted after the death of Tyre Nichols in Memphis, where police “unleashed a barrage of commands that were confusing, conflicting, and sometimes even impossible to obey,” The New York Times reported.
Some have expressed concerns about whether the AI could misinterpret what it hears in body-cam audio recordings, such as nearby civilian conversations that an officer is not involved in. Os Keyes, a doctoral student in Human Centered Design and Engineering at the University of Washington, has spoken out against the use of AI with body-cams.
Tassone called his company’s tech a “stark contrast” to body camera transcription and search technologies deployed by over 1,000 police departments that he says don’t differentiate between civilian and officer audio.
“Truleo is chosen by departments specifically because of our unique ability to separate civilian audio from officer audio and focus our analysis and scoring on officer language,” he said. “We will continue to add police departments around the country with the support of their unions because Truleo works.”
SPD previously said it was “too early in the process to speak to measurable outcomes” of the use of Truleo’s technology, but that it looked forward to possible insights in the future. After announcing that it was stopping the project, a spokesperson said, “SPD is dedicated to continuous improvement and evidence-based approaches to risk management, employee performance, and the delivery of police service.”
Solan called himself a “huge proponent” of new technology and new training and said it’s important to get behind tech that could be beneficial to society.
But citing the Seattle Police Department’s loss of hundreds of officers over the past few years and 16 so far in 2023, Solan said he believes AI technology “being used behind officers’ backs” is another example of why they’re leaving.
“The problem here is that this software, in our view, was being used to try to get officers to be held to a different accountability standard without their knowledge,” Solan added. “We’ve got no problem with accountability. Let’s talk about it. Let’s negotiate it. Because if you’re gonna tie it to discipline, then officers need to know about it.”
