A new artificial intelligence tool is trying to address a longstanding problem for police departments all over the country: a backlog of unwatched bodycam footage.
For the last year or so, Pocatello police have used Code Four, an AI tool developed by former students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to sift through bodycam footage and produce draft reports for officers to review. In April, the Pocatello City Council approved a $33,600 contract to continue the program. Now, Caldwell is using it, too.
“The easiest way to think about it is like having an incredibly attentive assistant who watches the entire video, listens to every word and takes notes the whole time,” George Cheng, co-founder of Code Four, told the Statesman in an interview. “It picks up who’s speaking, what’s happening, and the sequence of events — then organizes that into a clear, structured narrative.”…