Security Magazine logo
search
cart
facebook twitter linkedin youtube
  • Sign In
  • Create Account
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
Security Magazine logo
  • NEWS
    • Security Newswire
    • Technologies & Solutions
  • MANAGEMENT
    • Leadership Management
    • Enterprise Services
    • Security Education & Training
    • Logical Security
    • Security & Business Resilience
    • Profiles in Excellence
  • PHYSICAL
    • Access Management
    • Fire & Life Safety
    • Identity Management
    • Physical Security
    • Video Surveillance
    • Case Studies (Physical)
  • CYBER
    • Cybersecurity News
    • More
  • BLOG
  • COLUMNS
    • Cyber Tactics
    • Leadership & Management
    • Security Talk
    • Career Intelligence
    • Leader to Leader
    • Cybersecurity Education & Training
  • EXCLUSIVES
    • Annual Guarding Report
    • Most Influential People in Security
    • The Security Benchmark Report
    • The Security Leadership Issue
    • Top Guard and Security Officer Companies
    • Top Cybersecurity Leaders
    • Women in Security
  • SECTORS
    • Arenas / Stadiums / Leagues / Entertainment
    • Banking/Finance/Insurance
    • Construction, Real Estate, Property Management
    • Education: K-12
    • Education: University
    • Government: Federal, State and Local
    • Hospitality & Casinos
    • Hospitals & Medical Centers
    • Infrastructure:Electric,Gas & Water
    • Ports: Sea, Land, & Air
    • Retail/Restaurants/Convenience
    • Transportation/Logistics/Supply Chain/Distribution/ Warehousing
  • EVENTS
    • Industry Events
    • Webinars
    • Solutions by Sector
    • Security 500 Conference
  • MEDIA
    • Videos
      • Cybersecurity & Geopolitical Discussion
      • Ask Me Anything (AMA) Series
    • Podcasts
    • Polls
    • Photo Galleries
  • MORE
    • Call for Entries
    • Classifieds & Job Listings
    • Continuing Education
    • Newsletter
    • Sponsor Insights
    • Store
    • White Papers
  • EMAG
    • eMagazine
    • This Month's Content
    • Advertise
  • SIGN UP!
ManagementPhysicalTechnologies & SolutionsSecurity Enterprise ServicesSecurity Leadership and ManagementLogical SecuritySecurity & Business ResilienceFire & Life SafetyPhysical SecurityGovernment: Federal, State and Local

Speech Recognition Technology Offers New Ways to Help Protect Officers’ Safety and Well-Being

Spend less time heads down typing incident reports and more time protecting the public

By Ed McGuiggan
police crime scene
April 17, 2020

Improving the safety and well-being of our law enforcement professionals remains a key priority for communities across the U.S. Among the biggest obstacles to achieving this goal, however, are the outdated police documentation workflows and processes, which are often still manual (and some departments still rely on pen-to-paper). Today, officers devote hours of their workday to reporting and documentation, and the process can sometimes create unsafe work situations where officers are heads down in their vehicle typing up reports. Moreover, these routines and demands also add to the stress of an already demanding occupation.

In recent years, police departments have begun onboarding better tools and technologies for policing –including computer-aided dispatch (CAD) and records management systems (RMS), and, as part of a growing trend, speech recognition solutions. The latter innovation offers an alternative to traditional, manual methods of report creation, enabling officers to speak, rather than type or handwrite, detailed and accurate incident reports directly into the RMS. Not only do reports created in this way take significantly less time to build, they offer tremendous safety advantages to officers in the field.

 

Understanding Officer Safety and Wellness

The safety and wellness of law enforcement officers are crucial to the safety and wellness of the communities they serve. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, officers are three to five times more likely than the general population to suffer fatal injuries on the job. In fact, the FBI reports that as of March 25, 2020, 14 officers have been “feloniously killed” and another ten have been accidentally killed at work.

Even one death is too many, and these statistics don’t even cover non-fatal injuries or the impact of officers’ work on their mental and emotional well-being. As one of the most stressful occupations, careers in law enforcement too often mean higher rates of addiction, suicide and divorce. In other words, protecting our first responders’ health, safety and overall well-being remains a priority for all of us.

 

Paperwork is too Often an Obstacle in Law Enforcement

To understand these impacts more fully, Nuance recently conducted a survey of law enforcement officers across the U.S to gain deeper insight. In their responses, more than 70 percent said they spend at least one hour in their patrol vehicle to complete a single incident report. The time officers spend on paperwork is time they could otherwise spend patrolling their communities, but also has significant safety implications. With officers heads down in the field, they are likely at their most vulnerable as their situational awareness is diminished. In fact, 86 percent of respondents indicated that they are concerned that in-car documentation can negatively affect their safety, and as one police chief has said, “Reporting, while critical to what we do, can create obstacles in law enforcement,” including “creating unsafe reporting conditions in the vehicle.”

The same survey also revealed that public safety officials can spend more than three hours of each shift on paperwork. They’re creating a report for each incident they’re involved in, from straight facts to details of ongoing investigations. This heavy documentation load can affect the timely filing of reports; can limit community visibility; and can contribute to the notion of “excessive work,” “cognitive demands,” and officer burnout. This connection to burnout is also borne out by industry research, in which 81 percent of people who responded said they were concerned that the heavy burden of reporting creates officer burnout.

The time officers dedicate to documentation and administrative work is time they would prefer to spend in more mission-critical, proactive policework that improves the safety and security of their community. As the Department of Justice has written, “It is important for the police to be visible in their communities and know their residents. [. . .] Personal interactions between police officers and community members build mutual trust, which is essential to addressing neighborhood problems and reducing crime.” If officers are spending hours in their vehicles creating reports, however, opportunities for engaging these positive, personal interactions are limited.

Thus, police departments across the nation are committed to finding new ways to protect officers’ safety and well-being while also helping to alleviate some of the burdens that contribute to the stress of their work; one of these burdens is, of course, documentation and reporting workflows and processes.

Speech Recognition Solutions Create Faster, Safer, More Efficient Workflows for Report Creation

To help overcome the burdens of incident reporting and police documentation, many police departments are turning to voice-enabled technological innovations that offer an alternative to traditional, manual report creation. In this way, officers can simply speak to create detailed, accurate incident reports. By using their voices in place of typing, this method helps officers create their reports up to three times faster, which enables them to remain visible in their communities, and –importantly—to stay more situationally aware and productive on patrol. Thousands of officers across the country have already been armed with such a solution.

For example, when it’s time to create an incident report, officers can capture the necessary details of each incident by dictating in real-time, instead of looking up notes from hours—or even days—before. And rather than relying on multiple clicks in the RMS and slow typing skills, officers can use voice-powered commands to navigate the system and then dictate the report notes and data directly into the required fields. This combination of efficiencies means that officers can create their reports much faster than manual methods.

One police chief, whose department has integrated voice recognition technology into their RMS has said, “We’ve seen an increase in not only productivity, but in specificity. They can speak the report more rapidly, and they’re getting more in depth with the specifics of the case because rather than sitting there and typing these long sentences, they can just naturally say what occurred.”

Ultimately, good police work depends on good police reports. Regardless of the type of incident, police reports are invaluable to ongoing investigations, prosecutors, courts, insurance companies and the media, making the increased level of detail and specificity even more important in the long run. But creating these critical documents should not put officers at risk. With speech recognition as part of police reporting workflows, law enforcement professionals can spend less time documenting and more time getting back to what’s most important: protecting and serving the public.

 
KEYWORDS: automation law enforcement public safety risk management speech

Share This Story

Looking for a reprint of this article?
From high-res PDFs to custom plaques, order your copy today!

Ed mcguiggan headshot

Ed McGuiggan is the general manager of Dragon Professional and Consumer at Nuance Communications. 

Recommended Content

JOIN TODAY
To unlock your recommendations.

Already have an account? Sign In

  • Security's Top Cybersecurity Leaders 2024

    Security's Top Cybersecurity Leaders 2024

    Security magazine's Top Cybersecurity Leaders 2024 award...
    Security Enterprise Services
    By: Security Staff
  • cyber brain

    The intersection of cybersecurity and artificial intelligence

    Artificial intelligence (AI) is a valuable cybersecurity...
    Columns
    By: Pam Nigro
  • artificial intelligence AI graphic

    Assessing the pros and cons of AI for cybersecurity

    Artificial intelligence (AI) has significant implications...
    Logical Security
    By: Charles Denyer
Subscribe For Free!
  • Security eNewsletter & Other eNews Alerts
  • eMagazine Subscriptions
  • Manage My Preferences
  • Online Registration
  • Mobile App
  • Subscription Customer Service

More Videos

Sponsored Content

Sponsored Content is a special paid section where industry companies provide high quality, objective, non-commercial content around topics of interest to the Security audience. All Sponsored Content is supplied by the advertising company and any opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily reflect the views of Security or its parent company, BNP Media. Interested in participating in our Sponsored Content section? Contact your local rep!

close
  • Crisis Response Team
    Sponsored byEverbridge

    Automate or Fall Behind – Crisis Response at the Speed of Risk

  • Perimeter security
    Sponsored byAMAROK

    Why Property Security is the New Competitive Advantage

  • Duty of Care
    Sponsored byAMAROK

    Integrating Technology and Physical Security to Advance Duty of Care

Popular Stories

Internal computer parts

Critical Software Vulnerabilities Rose 37% in 2024

Coding

AI Emerges as the Top Concern for Security Leaders

Half open laptop

“Luigi Was Right”: A Look at the Website Sharing Data on More Than 1,000 Executives

Person working on laptop

Governance in the Age of Citizen Developers and AI

Shopping mall

Victoria’s Secret Security Incident Shuts Down Website

2025 Security Benchmark banner

Events

June 24, 2025

Inside a Modern GSOC: How Anthropic Benchmarks Risk Detection Tools for Speed and Accuracy

For today's security teams, making informed decisions in the first moments of a crisis is critical.

August 27, 2025

Risk Mitigation as a Competitive Edge

In today’s volatile environment, a robust risk management strategy isn’t just a requirement—it’s a foundation for organizational resilience. From cyber threats to climate disruptions, the ability to anticipate, withstand, and adapt to disruption is becoming a hallmark of industry leaders.

View All Submit An Event

Products

Security Culture: A How-to Guide for Improving Security Culture and Dealing with People Risk in Your Organisation

Security Culture: A How-to Guide for Improving Security Culture and Dealing with People Risk in Your Organisation

See More Products

Related Articles

  • cybersecurity

    Siemens USA launches cybersecurity analytics lab to help protect operational technology

    See More
  • office

    Using technology to protect your security assets, workforce and data

    See More
  • Gary Johnson COVID_19 Heroes

    Gary Johnson of the Pojoaque Valley School District makes student and staff well-being priority number one

    See More
×

Sign-up to receive top management & result-driven techniques in the industry.

Join over 20,000+ industry leaders who receive our premium content.

SIGN UP TODAY!
  • RESOURCES
    • Advertise
    • Contact Us
    • Store
    • Want More
  • SIGN UP TODAY
    • Create Account
    • eMagazine
    • eNewsletter
    • Customer Service
    • Manage Preferences
  • SERVICES
    • Marketing Services
    • Reprints
    • Market Research
    • List Rental
    • Survey/Respondent Access
  • STAY CONNECTED
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • YouTube
    • X (Twitter)
  • PRIVACY
    • PRIVACY POLICY
    • TERMS & CONDITIONS
    • DO NOT SELL MY PERSONAL INFORMATION
    • PRIVACY REQUEST
    • ACCESSIBILITY

Copyright ©2025. All Rights Reserved BNP Media.

Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing