How to Use Transcripts for Investigations

There’s a reason the heroes in police stories are always complaining about “dealing with paperwork.” Working as a police officer, detective, or investigator involves a lot of time-consuming administrative tasks. As police departments have grown more advanced in the technologies they use, there is more recorded information than ever: body camera footage, witness interviews, surveillance recordings, and audio notes. All of this information needs to be reviewed and filed. 

But paperwork doesn’t have to be a time-suck. Professional, accurate transcription services can dramatically expedite many tasks for officers and investigators, giving them more time back in their days to focus on more important initiatives. Here are just a few of the ways transcription can benefit law enforcement investigations.

Evidence Management

Speech-text-services, including both AI-assisted and human transcription, are invaluable for digital evidence management. Searchable transcripts allow law enforcement professionals to quickly find key moments within audio or video recordings during an investigation. If you need to confirm that a suspect received their Miranda warning, that can be checked in a matter of seconds with a searchable transcript of the arrest. Plus, transcripts allow officers to avoid watching (or rewatching) potentially disturbing video footage and simply refer to the text.

Interviews

Interviews are a key aspect of investigative work, and law enforcement professionals conduct a lot of them. Whether these interviews happen via the phone, video chat, or in-person, the audio and video recordings need to be reviewed for reports and evidence. But transcribing interviews word-for-word is a tedious task that can chain officers and investigators to their desks and prevent them from doing important work in the field. 

Transcription services can speed up this process and deliver complete, accurate interview transcripts. With verbatim transcription, investigators can see the nuances of their interviews beyond a word-for-word recounting, with nuances of the conversation still intact. And depending on the need, transcripts can also include timestamps and speaker identification if there is more than one interview subject. Accuracy is paramount when transcribing these interviews, which is why an industry-leading service like Rev guarantees 99% accurate transcripts.

Voice Notes

A variety of technologies exists to capture law enforcement professionals’ audio notes. These tools allow officers and investigators to quickly record their thoughts and observations on-site, filling in important details that might be missed on video. But these audio notes can quickly pile up, creating a daunting amount of content to sift through for key information. 

Automatic and human transcription services can quickly turn these digital recordings into searchable text, giving officers more time to get back to their communities and investigators more time to actively work on their cases.

Surveillance Recordings

Surveillance can take hundreds of hours, and digging through that content to find useful moments can be incredibly time-consuming. Outsourcing these recordings to a transcription provider can save investigators hours upon hours of desk work, streamlining the time it takes to get the information ready for court.

Writing Reports

In addition to a wide variety of evidence management uses, automatic and human transcription can significantly speed up report writing. Once officers have all of the key details in a fast, accurate text format, they can quickly plug that information into their report and move on with their duties.

Create Efficiencies with Transcription

A 2020 Rev research report found that 79% of respondents named time savings a huge benefit from using speech-to-text services. Furthermore, 63% ranked it the top benefit. That time-savings applies to law enforcement investigations as well. Transcripts of interviews and other audio or video evidence will accelerate workflows while providing accurate, secure information to help get a case court-ready. With automatic or human transcription services like Rev, officers and investigators will get back hours in their days to serve the community, follow up leads, and do the work they want to be doing.