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Faced with thousands of hours of body camera footage and non-urgent calls and not enough staff to handle it all, Harris County Sheriff’s officials are considering using artificial intelligence to handle some of the load.

Officials with the office cited finding ways they could use AI as one of their main goals for 2024 to become a leading agency in law enforcement. But while some agencies are turning to technologies like facial recognition software, sheriff’s office administrators said they see the biggest benefits in AI’s ability to analyze massive amounts of data.

“We are exploring the potential of AI to improve public service by enabling faster and more efficient data retrieval on our website,” said Gary Spurger, director of information technology for the sheriff’s office.

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The sheriff’s office does not have contracts for the technology, but Spurger said it is testing its use in a variety of areas, including using it to analyze bodycam video and assist in locating incarcerated family members.

Spurger gave the example of an officer investigating a case that involves reviewing over 100 hours of body camera footage. The ability to enter keywords like “man in blue jeans and a T-shirt” helps the investigator sort through the data more efficiently.

Although technology can be a great help, the final decision ultimately lies with the employees, Spurger said.

Marc Levin, senior policy adviser at the Council on Criminal Justice, said he thinks the office’s plans to use AI are a good idea in principle.

“Finding the needle in the haystack with body cameras seems to be a huge time saver,” he said. The sheriff’s office’s efforts are similar to those of other agencies across the country, he said.

Although a contract has been signed with a company called AI Airship, a Houston Police Department spokesperson said the agency does not currently work with AI technology.

An administrator at an agency in Corona, California, a city of nearly 160,000 residents, recently announced that the agency plans to use AI data analytics to examine crime data for hotspot information, according to a June article.

Like its counterpart in the Houston Police Department, the sheriff’s office is stepping up efforts to recruit more deputies amid a wave of retirements in law enforcement agencies nationwide. In 2022, the office had about 2,200 certified employees and nearly 500 professional staff, but the turnover rate had been rising in recent years, according to a draft report by consulting firm KPMG.

Agencies adopting AI technology are not universally welcomed. Savannah Kumar, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union specializing in surveillance and police bias, recently expressed concern about the proliferation of AI software in law enforcement.

“This is definitely a cause for concern and concern, especially when it comes to the use of predictive technologies and other tools in law enforcement,” Kumar said.

While Levin acknowledges the potential benefits for law enforcement, he points out that ensuring that defense attorneys have access to the same tools as law enforcement when searching videos may be problematic.

Everette Penn, a professor of criminology at the University of Houston-Clear Lake, said more agencies are turning to new technologies such as artificial intelligence to offset staffing problems.

“No technology can replace a police officer at his or her precinct level, but we are seeing that technology is evolving every day and providing officers with the eyes, ears and intelligence they need to do their jobs,” he said.