California Lawmakers: Support S.B. 524 to Rein in AI Written Police Reports

EFF update
6 days 11 hours ago

EFF urges California state lawmakers to pass S.B. 524, authored by Sen. Jesse Arreguín. This bill is an important first step in regaining control over police using generative AI to write their narrative police reports. 

This bill does several important things: It mandates that police reports written by AI include disclaimers on every page or within the body of the text that make it clear that this report was written in part or in total by a computer. It also says that any reports written by AI must retain their first draft. That way, it should be easier for defense attorneys, judges, police supervisors, or any other auditing entity to see which portions of the final report were written by AI and which parts were written by the officer. Further, the bill requires officers to sign and verify that they read the report and its facts are correct. And it bans AI vendors from selling or sharing the information a police agency provided to the AI.

These common-sense, first-step reforms are important: watchdogs are struggling to figure out where and how AI is being used in a police context. In fact, a popular AI police report writing tool, Axon’s Draft One, would be out of compliance with this bill, which would require them to redesign their tool to make it more transparent. 

This bill is an important first step in regaining control over police using generative AI to write their narrative police reports. 

Draft One takes audio from an officer’s body-worn camera, and uses AI  to turn that dialogue into a narrative police report. Because independent researchers have been unable to test it, there are important questions about how the system handles things like sarcasm, out of context comments, or interactions with members of the public that speak languages other than English. Another major concern is Draft One’s inability to keep track of which parts of a report were written by people and which parts were written by AI. By design, their product does not retain different iterations of the draft—making it easy for an officer to say, “I didn’t lie in my police report, the AI wrote that part.” 

All lawmakers should pass regulations of AI written police reports. This technology could be nearly everywhere, and soon. Axon is a top supplier of body-worn cameras in the United States, which means they have a massive ready-made customer base. Through the bundling of products, AI-written police reports could be at a vast percentage of police departments. 

AI-written police reports are unproven in terms of their accuracy, and their overall effects on the criminal justice system. Vendors still have a long way to go to prove this technology can be transparent and auditable. While it would not solve all of the many problems of AI encroaching on the criminal justice system, S.B. 524 is a good first step to rein in an unaccountable piece of technology. 

We urge California lawmakers to pass S.B. 524. 

Matthew Guariglia

【フォトアングル】日中戦争終結８０周年記念イベントに３７０人参加＝８月11日、東京・練馬区、伊東良平撮影

日本ジャーナリストクラブ（JCJ）
6 days 12 hours ago
　８月１１日に日本とアジアの平和をつなぐ「日中戦争終結から８０周年・記念のつどい」が東京・練馬のココネリホールで開かれた。主催は日中友好協会が母体の実行委員会で、第１部は作家の島田雅彦さんが「米中露の狭間に生きるということ」と題し講演。「ナショナリズムに訴えるのはファシズムに繋がる」と話した。第２部は反戦平和の合唱組曲や沖縄三線、太極拳などが披露され、写真の東京朝鮮中高級学校生による舞踊には、参加者３７０人の大きな拍手が起きた。　　　　　　　ＪＣＪ月刊機関紙「ジャーナリスト」..
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EFF Awards Spotlight ✨ Erie Meyer

EFF update
6 days 12 hours ago

In 1992 EFF presented our very first awards recognizing key leaders and organizations advancing innovation and championing civil liberties and human rights online. Now in 2025 we're continuing to celebrate the accomplishments of people working toward a better future for everyone with the EFF Awards!

All are invited to attend the EFF Awards on Wednesday, September 10 at the San Francisco Design Center. Whether you're an activist, an EFF supporter, a student interested in cyberlaw, or someone who wants to munch on a strolling dinner with other likeminded individuals, anyone can enjoy the ceremony!

REGISTER TODAY!

GENERAL ADMISSION: $55 | CURRENT EFF MEMBERS: $45 | STUDENTS: $35

If you're not able to make it, we'll also be hosting a livestream of the event on Friday, September 12 at 12:00 PM PT. The event will also be recorded, and posted to YouTube and the Internet Archive after the livestream.

We are honored to present the three winners of this year's EFF Awards: Just Futures Law, Erie Meyer, and Software Freedom Law Center, India. But, before we kick off the ceremony next week, let's take a closer look at each of the honorees. This time—Erie Meyer, winner of the EFF Award for Protecting Americans' Data:

Erie Meyer is a Senior Fellow at the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator where she focuses on the intersection of technology, artificial intelligence, and regulation, and a Senior Fellow at the Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law & Policy. Since January 20, Meyer has helped organize former government technologists to stand up for the privacy and integrity of governmental systems that hold Americans’ data. In addition to organizing others, she filed a declaration in federal court in February warning that 12 years of critical records could be irretrievably lost in the CFPB’s purge by the Trump Administration’s Department of Government Efficiency. In April, she filed a declaration in another case warning about using private-sector AI on government information. That same month, she testified to the House Oversight Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation that DOGE is centralizing access to some of the most sensitive data the government holds—Social Security records, disability claims, even data tied to national security—without a clear plan or proper oversight, warning that “DOGE is burning the house down and calling it a renovation.” 

We're excited to celebrate Erie Meyer and the other EFF Award winners in person in San Francisco on September 10! We hope that you'll join us there.

Thank you to Fastly, DuckDuckGo, Corellium, and No Starch Press for their year-round support of EFF's mission.

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EFF is dedicated to a harassment-free experience for everyone, and all participants are encouraged to view our full Event Expectations.

Questions? Email us at events@eff.org.

Christian Romero