Will AI help Colorado police solve crimes?
Law enforcement tools come with big but unproven claims
Colorado police are increasingly adopting artificial intelligence tools, claiming they will help solve crimes, even though that remains largely unproven.
This week, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office became the latest law enforcement agency to announce it will use an AI tool called TimePilot to help comb through evidence. A police spokesperson told the Denver Gazette that the $100,000-per-year program could shorten a months-long investigation down to “an hour or two.”
Earlier this year, the Colorado Auto Theft Prevention Authority bought an AI-powered forensic camera for around $70,000, claiming it would help solve thefts in the Denver metro area even while admitting the camera hadn’t been used by any other police in the U.S.
The huge volumes of digital evidence collected in modern law enforcement investigations can be difficult to sort through – and AI tools can help with that. But they can also invade people’s privacy and unfairly discriminate against them, leading to ongoing debates in Colorado and around the world about the proper limits on these technologies.
Over the last decade, major crimes in Colorado have had fairly consistent clearance rates – basically a measure of whether a suspect was arrested or an investigation concluded some other way. If these tools work as police claim, we should see those numbers start to go up.
Need to Know
🚇 Transit planning will be crucial to the success of two new sports stadium projects in Denver, team representatives said. A new football stadium planned by the Broncos will need city investment to expand public transit access, since there will be limited stadium-specific parking. A separate stadium planned by the women’s soccer team Summit FC will have no specific parking, and may need to rely heavily on ride-hailing drop-offs to bring in fans. (Denver Business Journal)
⛓️ Prisons would have to take steps to release more inmates to relieve overcrowding under a bill being considered by state lawmakers. Gov. Jared Polis has called to open a new prison to handle the expanding inmate population, but some lawmakers and experts say releasing low-risk incarcerated people would be more cost-effective. (Colorado Politics, read the bill)
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Something Good
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