Can you introduce yourself and share your background in law enforcement? What’s your current role and how long have you been in this field?
Thanks for asking. My company, Ditto Transcripts, works with dozens of law enforcement agencies across the US, providing transcription services to them. We have been in business for 15 years now and transcribe everything from interviews to body-worn camera videos.
What inspired you to pursue a career in law enforcement, and how has your journey evolved since you started?
We actually started as a medical transcription services company and had to evolve once the healthcare industry adopted the point-and-click method for medical charting. After receiving numerous calls from law enforcement agencies asking us to transcribe different files for them, we started to look into working with law enforcement agencies and haven’t looked back since.
Based on your experience, what’s the most significant challenge facing law enforcement agencies today, and how are you addressing it in your work?
Law enforcement agencies are understaffed and underfunded. We help them by providing a service that their detectives and investigators don’t have enough time to do on their own anymore. They also can’t afford to hire back-office staff to do transcription work because they need to hire more officers before they can hire support staff.
Can you share a specific instance where technology has improved your ability to serve and protect the community? What lessons did you learn from implementing this technology?
We partnered with a CJIS- and HIPAA-compliant data hosting company that also has the ability to record audio files. This has allowed our clients to record their interviews or dictations directly on their smartphones and upload them to us immediately for transcription. It’s allowed our clients to stay in the field longer and not have to be tied to their computers all day to upload their files to us.
Community relations are crucial in law enforcement. Can you describe a successful initiative you’ve been part of that has improved trust between your department and the local community?
Because we are an unbiased third party and all of our transcripts for law enforcement agencies are certified, the public knows they are true and accurate. We are not on anyone’s side, so to speak; we transcribe everything as we hear it and don’t alter anything either way.
In your opinion, what’s the most underutilized resource in law enforcement today? How can agencies better leverage this resource to enhance their effectiveness?
I think law enforcement agencies should utilize more third-party service providers like us to take some of the burden off of their officers and detectives.
Training is a critical aspect of law enforcement. Can you share an innovative training approach you’ve either implemented or experienced that you believe should be more widely adopted?
Using our transcripts allows trainers and officers to carefully review exact wording and responses during training exercises, real-world encounters, and interviews. Training personnel can analyze communication patterns, identify opportunities for better phrasing, de-escalation, and clearer command presence. By reviewing the verbatim transcripts we provide to them of actual officer-community interactions, trainees clearly see the impact of language choices in tense situations.
Mental health is increasingly recognized as important in law enforcement. What strategies have you found effective in supporting the mental wellbeing of officers in your department?
When law enforcement agencies utilize a transcription services company, they take a huge burden off of their officers and detectives who are being asked to do it themselves. The amount of overtime decreases almost immediately, which in turn lowers the stress and burnout rate of officers because they have more time to relax and sleep. This helps officer retention and lowers HR costs involved in hiring and training new officers less often.
Looking ahead, what do you see as the biggest opportunity for positive change in law enforcement over the next five years? How can individual officers contribute to this change?
Please understand that I am biased here. Over the next five years, the greatest opportunity for positive change in law enforcement lies in systematically analyzing officer interactions through accurate, verbatim transcripts produced from body-worn camera footage. They have to be verbatim transcripts done by humans though, because AI-generated transcripts are not nearly accurate enough, and if you put garbage data in, you will get garbage data out. By studying the exact words verbatim, agencies can pinpoint what specific policing methods effectively build trust, de-escalate conflict, and maintain community safety.