In Lafayette, Indiana, a small city with a population of just over 70,000, the local police force decided to try out a new AI tool sold by law enforcement tech giant Axon, the company with a $35 billion market cap best known for making the Taser. Called Form One, it promised to save officers time by listening to the audio from their body cameras, then filling out the administrative details of a police report: officers and citizens’ names, ID documentation, license plates and other vehicle information. For Lafayette’s captains who’d worked closely with Axon on previous AI projects, it seemed like a no-brainer.

But after seven months of testing the technology, many of Lafayette’s officers found the tool was wasting time, not saving it. “I know it doesn't save me time and I know it has inaccuracies that I will have to edit,” wrote one officer in a cache of emails obtained by Forbes via public records request. Form One struggled to record the right names or car plates, even when they were clearly stated in the camera footage, according to other emails. One cop said a simple form that used to take 30 seconds to fill out manually now takes three minutes with Form One because there are so many errors. “Form One dramatically increases the time it takes to finish reports,” he wrote to a colleague.

Routine paperwork is the kind of simple task you’d expect an artificial intelligence model to excel at. Police officers spend as much as 15 hours a week filling out reports, per Axon data. The documents are either stored for future reference or provided to prosecutors who decide whether to pursue charges, making them a crucial part of the criminal justice system. But those reports must be accurate, and the process of editing an AI model’s work to ensure it meets that standard has become onerous for some police officers.

Axon spokesperson Victoria Keough said Form One is in early access, which is meant for agencies to provide feedback before the product is released more widely. She noted officers retain full control over the final report. Lafayette’s Sergeant Matthew Santerre confirmed the emails obtained by Forbes were from a period of testing, from officers who were explicitly asked what could be done to improve the tool. He said several issues that cops flagged were then addressed, but didn’t answer follow-up questions about what was fixed. The agency has not determined if it will use Form One longer-term.

Form One is the latest addition to Axon’s flagship AI product, called Draft One, which the company launched in 2024. While Form One fills out names and addresses, Draft One writes up what happened during an incident. Axon says it’s now in use by 600 police departments across the country and has helped write 600,000 police reports, saving an estimated 300,000 hours, according to its customer........

© Forbes