Oversight Commission Asks Residents to Shape Police Report-Writing AI Policy in Survey - Pasadena Now

Pasadena’s Community Police Oversight Commission is asking residents to weigh in by June 2 on what a draft Pasadena Police Department policy on AI-assisted police report writing should address, in a two-language online survey announced this week by the City Attorney’s Office.

The survey is available online here:

• English version: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/g/bte8tmC99Q
• Spanish version: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/g/7V27JpQCwL

The survey is the second test of an eight-step Technology and Equipment Policy Review Framework the commission adopted on April 9. The first was the drone policy the commission approved the same evening.

Shannon Prior, principal administrative analyst in the City Attorney’s Office Oversight Commission Support Division, told community recipients in a May 21 email that the input “will help ensure the community’s values, priorities, and concerns are reflected in the development of this policy.”

Prior asked recipients to take the “short survey, which will remain open through June 2.”

The proposed policy enters that legal landscape against a national debate over AI report-writing tools. Axon Enterprise launched its Draft One product — a generative AI assistant that drafts report narratives from body-worn camera audio, built on the Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service — in April 2024, according to Axon’s product announcement.

In a November 2024 white paper titled “Police Departments Shouldn’t Allow Officers to Use AI to Draft Police Reports,” the American Civil Liberties Union argued that “in the end, we do not think police departments should use this technology,” citing concerns about unreliability, bias, evidentiary integrity, and transparency.

Residents with questions about the survey can reach Shannon Prior at (626) 744-7888 or sprior@cityofpasadena.net.