How mobile OCR solutions and Artificial Intelligence benefit Policing

Artificial intelligence is practically everywhere these days. It’s used in a wide range of sectors including finance, transportation, healthcare and more – it’s a trend that shows no signs of slowing anytime soon.

With policing, however, AI has seen a more controversial stance because things aren’t always black and white. Therefore, usable and safe AI-based technologies are needed so that law enforcement can enjoy all of the benefits that this has to offer with as few of the potential downsides as possible.

How is Mobile Policing Enhanced with Artificial Intelligence Today?

Many countries already use AI for things like surveillance purposes today. In fact, over a third are employing these techniques for things like “Safe City” platforms – leveraging things like video streaming and shared workflows to help make their jobs safer, easier and more effective all the time.

Robots

One of the more robust applications of AI comes by way of robotics. Collaborative robots, also called CoBots, can be used to complete tasks that are generally considered to be unsafe for humans. Detonating a bomb would be a prime example of this.

Drones would be another example, as they can fly over a certain area and gather intelligence so that leaders can make better and more informed decisions about a situation.

Facial Recognition

Facial recognition is another area where artificial intelligence is employed, as police officers use it to identify criminals on a regular basis. Closed circuit cameras can be outfitted with AI in public places to help instantly identify a criminal when he or she walks by, alerting the authorities to their exact location so that the proper action can be taken.

OCR Mobile Data Capture

Another area where artificial intelligence is really making its presence known comes by way of OCR, or optical character recognition. This gives law enforcement officials the opportunity to digitize information on-the-go, which has been a game-changer in a lot of situations.

Using OCR scanners, which are software-based tools which can be used on any smartphone or other mobile device, officers can accurately and quickly scan someone’s driver’s license, passport or other form of ID. The same technology can also be used to identify vehicles in seconds by scanning the license plate or vehicle identification number (VIN). This helps dramatically reduce the amount of potential mistakes that can be made, which also goes a long way towards making sure that officers are working with the most complete information as well.

How Does Evidence Collection with OCR Work?

Collecting this type of data isn’t just hard – under certain circumstances, it can be dangerous for officers. Therefore, anything that makes their lives easier and safer goes a long way towards protecting the communities we live and work in.

• Take a traffic accident, for example. This is always a stressful experience for all involved, and police officers have to collect a huge amount of data from various people. They’re also likely trying to calm people down – a situation that can lead to human error. OCR can make sure the data is accurately collected while they focus on more important things.
• Citizen checks are another big example. If a police officer stops a random person to ask them for ID, that person might begin to act aggressively. OCR can help make sure the data is collected accurately while they try to deescalate the situation.

Fatigue, stress, heavy workloads – all of these things are very real issues for police departments and many of them can be mitigated with the use of artificial intelligence and, more importantly, optical character recognition technology.

How Can Anyline Be Integrated?

At Anyline, our solution works with virtually any smartphone that runs on the Android, UWP or iOS operating systems. All scanning is done inexpensively using standard mobile devices that officers already know how to use.

The Anyline SDK (software development kit) can be integrated into virtually anything, and a customer service team is always ready to help. To find out more information about how artificial intelligence, optical character recognition and similar technologies can assist the police in their essential duties, contact the team at Anyline today for a free demonstration. You can also get a free 30-day trial for the SDK to see what it can do up close and personal.