OFFICER Labs Review: CentralSquare Centerline AI Suite

Ever since Star Trek first aired and the bridge crew could simply talk to the computer I’ve been fascinated with the idea of artificial intelligence (AI). While we may not realize it, there is AI all around us and in many of the day-to-day devices we use. The very tablet upon which I type has software that incorporates AI. So when we were contacted by CentralSquare and asked to evaluate their product, Centerline AI™, I was excited about it … but also skeptical because it’s a report writing product and reports contain narratives and, sometimes, subjective statements. So how could an AI platform generate such?

Since I’m retired, I have no police database to work from, nor the need to generate reports, I needed two things to conduct the evaluation: First, I needed familiarity with what it is supposed to do. Second, I needed to speak with a law enforcement professional who had first-hand knowledge and use of the product who could verify (or not) how well it worked. Did it do what it was advertised to do?

Let’s take a look at that question first: Does Centerline AI do what it is advertised to do? I went to the website and studied the published information about it.

The first thing I found was that the Centerline AI™ software would transcribe videos. How often have you had to watch a body camera video to see if something happened the way an officer said it did? Or to find a statement made by a citizen? Or even just to see if an arrestee actually was read his rights during an arrest? The fact that the Centerline AI™ allows the ability to upload videos, and then transcribe the video automatically, was a strong point in its favor.

The fact that it can then take that transcription to create a narrative, or it empowers officers to do so by talking (voice to text), or it gives you the ability to do it from a selection of form templates. All of these options help you create a more accurate and thorough narrative, and it does so in a fraction of the time it takes to type out a narrative. (As an experiment to convince yourself of the value of this, type a narrative and then compare it to a narrative of some event created by the AI using an uploaded video, and then ask yourself this question: Which would you rather have going to the State’s Attorney and into court?).