Within the metropolis that’s residence to Microsoft, Redmond Police Chief Darrell Lowe isn’t simply watching technological innovation from the sidelines — he’s integrating it into his division’s each day operations.
Lowe, a 30-year legislation enforcement veteran, views Redmond as the best staging floor for a brand new period of policing that capitalizes on developments starting from drones as first responders to synthetic intelligence. When he turned chief six years in the past, his imaginative and prescient was to rework the division right into a premier company; expertise has been a cornerstone of that mission.
“The general public security tech area is blowing up proper now with a variety of curiosity and funding and VC cash,” Lowe instructed GeekWire. “Being in Microsoft’s yard doesn’t damage, nevertheless it’s not like Microsoft is reducing checks for the Redmond Police Division.”
Lowe, who additionally runs his personal public security tech consultancy, primarily seeks instruments that enhance employees effectivity and simplify officer duties. An AI-powered investigative platform from San Francisco-based Longeye matches that invoice. Longeye ingests digital info similar to surveillance video, cellphone data, crime scene pictures and interviews to research knowledge at speeds that exceed human evaluation.
Lowe not too long ago instructed KING 5 how the device helped investigators verify key proof in a chilly case by combing by means of 60 hours of jail cellphone calls in minutes.
Nonetheless, he maintains that such instruments are a part of the equation reasonably than the full answer.
“It’s actually necessary for legislation enforcement businesses and officers to not get lazy and suppose AI is the reply, since you nonetheless need to corroborate no matter that’s,” Lowe stated.
Whereas AI is a more recent addition to Lowe’s tech toolbox, the division has a historical past of technical adoption. Earlier deployments included adhesive GPS trackers fired at automobiles to catch fleeing suspects. and handheld narcotics analyzers that may scan by means of clear packaging and establish greater than 530 managed substances, similar to fentanyl, methamphetamine, and heroin.
However drones — particularly drones as first responders — are Lowe’s satisfaction and pleasure. He equates their affect on fashionable policing to the period when handheld radios changed police name packing containers.
With a present employees of roughly 85 officers, Lowe employs two full-time drone pilots working from a flight management heart outfitted with autonomous drones from Seattle-based Brinc and Skydio. Built-in straight into the division’s dispatch system, the drones can launch and arrive on-scene in below two minutes.
Lowe recollects a current name relating to a person experiencing a psychological well being disaster on a avenue nook. The particular person was screaming on the sky and waving his arms.
“Typical police response is you ship an officer on the bottom to make contact. We’ve seen these calls escalate and go improper,” Lowe stated.
As an alternative, a drone arrived in 30 seconds. From 250 toes, a pilot noticed the person, decided no crime was occurring and nobody was at risk, and watched because the particular person ultimately walked away.
“We canceled the bottom unit response. There was no want for police contact,” Lowe stated.
To handle privateness considerations, Lowe carried out a “horizon-first” coverage: drone cameras are pointed on the sky throughout transit and solely tilt down as soon as they attain the particular GPS coordinates of a name.
Whereas drones have been a “sport changer,” different applied sciences have hit velocity bumps. The Redmond Metropolis Council not too long ago paused the division’s license plate reader program following regional considerations about knowledge sharing and whether or not U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) might entry the info.
Redmond PD began deploying Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) this summer season to alert officers and analysts when a automobile linked to against the law, lacking particular person, stolen automobile, or different vital incident is detected.
Lowe pushed again on what he calls “hysteria” surrounding the expertise, arguing that cameras have a confirmed, useful place in legislation enforcement.
“There isn’t a expectation of privateness in a public place on a tax-funded street,” Lowe stated, noting that Washington’s tolling cameras typically seize extra private knowledge (together with driver faces) for longer intervals than his ALPR methods. “The privateness considerations, whereas I perceive they’re reputable, in addition they need to be balanced in opposition to what the legislation says.”
As a result of the Metropolis of Redmond signed a contract to launch the ALPR expertise, Lowe famous that the council should now take into account any authorized ramifications of a possible breach of contract.
Reflecting on a protracted profession that started in an progressive division in Santa Monica, Calif., below then-Chief Jim Butts, Lowe feels lucky to have expertise embedded in his “cop DNA.”
Now he laughs at how a lot the job description has advanced.
“After we all received into this, we wished to go on the market and catch dangerous guys … play cops and robbers and that entire factor,” he stated. “I by no means imagined that I’d be negotiating multi-million-dollar, multi-year [tech] contracts as a cop.”
However even with fashionable advances, Lowe insists expertise won’t ever exchange an officer’s empathy.
“We are able to by no means take the human out of the loop,” he stated. “When folks contact the police, it’s typically not on their greatest day. It’s to have one other human there to empathize and sympathize. It’s the rationale why most of us received into this occupation — to assist others.”
