The adage when it comes to public safety has been "if you see something, say something." Ohio is now employing a new tool where you can say something to an interactive artificial intelligence chatbot; an app that allows people to submit information about potential criminal activity.
Ohio Department of Public Safety Director Andy Wilson said the multi-lingual app Safeguard Ohio can allow anyone to upload video, audio, and photos of suspicious activity. Then it lets artificial intelligence to take it from there.
“Because AI is involved, it asks the follow-up questions," Wilson said. "It asks basically everything that needs to be gathered from an informational point of view to get what we need to, number one, understand what’s going on and get it to the right folks.”
Users can select from eight categories to report a tip. Those include drug-related activity, human trafficking, terrorism, school threats, and crimes against children.
“People can submit suspicious activity reports using this bot, using this app, sending this information into homeland security and we will get it where it needs to go," Wilson said.
Ohio Homeland Security (OHS) Director Mark Porter said up to this point, people who want to report suspicious activity would have to call or go to a static form online where they could enter information. He said authorities had seen a decrease in the number of reports over time, getting an average of 30 tips per month until Aug. 6. That's when the new app went online.
"In the last 30 days, our numbers have tripled in what we are getting," Porter said. He attributed the increase to the app's capability to process multiple languages and younger people being more likely to file information using an app and chatbot.
Wilson said reports made via the app can still be made anonymously. But emergencies need to be handled as they always have been.
“This isn’t a substitute for 911. What this is is to catch more of the suspicious activity, not the imminent ‘Hey something is going down,’ but ‘my roommate has a manifesto' or 'I saw this person online basically threaten to kill so and so.’ That kind of stuff," Wilson said. "The AI chatbot will direct the user in case of an emergency, something that’s an emergency or imminent, to call 911."
Ohio Homeland Security paid approximately $200,000 to the software company Vigiliti for the initial development of the Safeguard Ohio chatbot, backend dashboard for OHS staff, and compatibility with OHS's current case management system. OHS also signed a two-year contract for $250,000 per year with the company for maintenance of the system and 24/7 access to help resolve any technical issues.
