by: Edward Segal
NORTH DAKOTA (KXNET) — A new national survey of first responders published today revealed strong support for the use of artificial intelligence at work, highlighting the growth of law enforcement’s trust in the technology.
Mark43, a mission-critical public safety platform, partners with Propeller Insights to conduct the study every year, and surveyed 538 public safety professionals in October for this year’s report.
The study found a 55% increase in law enforcement support of AI adoption since last year. In addition, the survey revealed concerns about cybersecurity and a growing demand for cloud-native, data-driven, and interoperable computer-aided dispatch (CAD) and records management systems (RMS) to improve efficiency and public safety outcomes.
The survey found that 90% of law enforcement officers support their agencies using AI, and found a few reasons for that:
- 65% say it would help increase productivity and efficiency
- 89% think it would help their agencies reduce crime
- 87% believe it is transforming public safety for the better due to efficiency in report writing, enhanced analytics, and more easily locating crimes
88% of law enforcement officers trust their agencies to use AI responsibly. Last year, that number was 59%. Officers and first responders also have concerns relating to cybersecurity and operations. They were asked how often they have issues with RMS, CAD, and other things:
- 84% of law enforcement said their organization had a cybersecurity issue over the last year, such as scam calls, malware, and viruses
- 57% say their RMS is typically unavailable for over 10 hours a year due to software updates
- 54% say their CAD system is typically unavailable for over 10 hours a year due to software updates
- 68% have experienced system outages due to a lack of updated technology
- 95% of public safety professionals experienced at least one outage or technology malfunction in the last year
Due to these technological issues, 85% say public safety agencies are overwhelmed by events like wildfires, hurricanes, and power grid failures, and 89% are concerned with how their agencies running on legacy systems would handle tactical responses during major events.
The majority of people working in public safety also believe AI can improve data reporting processes.
- 86% believe data reporting processes can be improved, mostly to save time
- 72% of agencies have a Real Time Crime Center, and 92% say it’s effective in enhancing officer response
- 69% believe having a Real Time Crime Center would benefit their agency by increasing efficiency, improving response times and improving public safety
- 78% use analytics or business intelligence tools to analyze crime data, and 87% report that integrating them into the records management system would improve pattern identification
83% of first responders believe there should be greater crime data transparency with the public, and this would help them in doing so.
Officers also agree that AI would have an impact on the efficiency of creating reports, which would allow them to spend more time out in the field.
- 76% of law enforcement officers say they have spent more than half their shifts completing paperwork, and 70% had to use overtime to do so
- 88% say having new technology would help them better serve the community, and 97% say having tools to keep them from typing the same thing multiple times would make an impact
- 65% have had to return to a physical location to fill out reports
- 51% have to log 4-6 applications for their role on a daily basis, and 88% say switching between them affects their efficiency
- 99% say a consolidated CAD and RMS system would improve efficiency, and 82% would find it helpful if they had these programs on their phones
- 63% cited that record expungement requests have increased, and 85% find it difficult to manage the process
The report identified four emerging trends that are expected to impact public safety in 2025, predicting that agencies will embrace cloud-native systems and AI to improve efficiency, strengthen cybersecurity and resilience, improve mobility, and optimize resource allocation. The report says this will ultimately enable first responders to serve their communities more effectively.
Visit the Mark43 website to see the full report.
Original Story: https://www.kxnet.com/news/top-stories/survey-of-first-responders-shows-strong-ai-support/
