The Springville police department in Utah is considering partnering with artificial intelligence company, Banjo, to gather real-time data from various sources — 911 dispatch calls, traffic cameras, emergency alarms, social media posts — to gather information in a way that lets police respond to emergencies quicker than they would otherwise be able to.
“Live (information) makes a difference,” CEO Damien Patton said at the 2019 Silicon Slopes Tech Summit.
Banjo entered an agreement with the Utah Attorney General’s Office and the Utah Department of Public Safety (UDOT) that lets the agencies use Banjo’s technology to “reduce time and resources typically required to generate leads, and instead focus their efforts on incident response.”
The police chief was impressed with the technology and thought it could enable his department “to do our job more effectively and quicker.” For example, normally, police would get a 911 call informing them of kidnapping and wait for leads to develop, which could take hours. Using Banjo, however, police would get real-time data from UDOT cameras, social media and sex offender registries and be able to develop leads within minutes.
