Nuance Communications, Inc. announced Nuance® Dragon® Law Enforcement – its first professional productivity solution designed specifically for law enforcement professionals. Dragon Law Enforcement features powerful dictation and voice command capabilities to improve report accuracy and timeliness, speed data entry into records management systems (RMS) or other applications, and enable common look-up tasks via voice command — all at up to three times faster than typing, with up to 99 percent accuracy. Nuance demonstrated Dragon Law Enforcement at the 2016 International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Conference and Exposition.
Dragon Law Enforcement delivers on the need of law enforcement professionals, including police officers and sergeants, for a fast, accurate way to safely and efficiently meet daily reporting and documentation demands – all while being able to capture more detail in the moment versus reporting an incident hours later. Documenting by voice also allows officers to be heads-up and more situationally aware by minimizing the need for use of the mobile data terminal (MDT) keyboard while on patrol. Dragon Law Enforcement also performs voice-activated license plate and arrest lookups to instantly assess potential danger.
Additional benefits include:
- Reduced time tethered to a computer manually typing reports, allowing officers to be more visible in the community and more productive in their patrol cars
- Easier software license management for law enforcement IT staff with the ability to manage user profiles and custom settings.
“Like other professions, law enforcement professionals face reporting and documentation challenges. However, these documentation demands can oftentimes impact not only productivity but officer safety and their ability to be more visible in the community,” said Peter Mahoney, senior vice president and general manager of Dragon. “By leveraging our experience in serving the law enforcement community along with the input from police officers nationally, we have introduced a customized and tailored documentation solution that directly addresses their unique documentation needs.”
Dragon and its Positive Impact on Law Enforcement
Police departments across North America have already experienced the benefits of Dragon. For instance,
- The Clearwater Police Department reduced report-writing time by more than 50 percent to give its officers the ability to get back on the street.
- A police department in Colorado has estimated a savings of $195,000 every year because it no longer pays a transcription service.
The Rogers Police Department in Minnesota decided to implement Dragon as a means to streamline the reporting process and increase overall department efficiencies. According to Jeffrey Beahen, Chief, Rogers, Minn. Police Department: “Seeing content on the screen as they dictate is helping the officers produce more thorough and accurate reports. They’re able to review, edit and fill in missing details as they go, which makes a big difference.”
Delivering on the Needs of Police Chiefs
The latest Dragon solution also meets the appeal by International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) President Terrence Cunningham to police departments across the country to demand speech recognition solutions. When he was sworn into office in October 2015, Cunningham, who also serves as Chief of Police, for Wellesley, Massachusetts, Police Department said:
“I believe we must focus on the role of technology in policing. There is no doubt that technology can be a great asset to our officers, but there are times when it can also be a deadly distraction. Specifically, I’m talking about officers and troopers dying or being severely injured due to the distractions of technology in their vehicles. We need to demand a solution that allows officers to keep their head up while issuing verbal commands to run a query, change a radio frequency, or activate their emergency lights.”
Dragon Law Enforcement effectively meets Cunningham’s proposed demand by delivering a solution capable of running common queries by voice.
