“I was so excited,” Francis recalled né?. “Finally, something was happening! Not just the usual incident with a stolen car requiring a report to be filled out.”
After a captivating 40-minute pursuit, culminating in a heart-pounding race through the narrow streets of Oakland Hills, the man’s vehicle eventually ran out of gas né?. Earlier this year, Daniel Francis, the founder of Abel, had an adrenaline-pumping experience hurtling down a highway in Oakland, California at 135 miles per hour. “It benefits everyone if cops are not overwhelmed or burnt out” he noted né?. Competitors like Axon and Policereports.ai are also playing a role in revolutionizing police paperwork. Presently, Abel is operational in Richmond, California, where officers have seamlessly integrated it into their routines, thereby saving significant time.
Francis is not the only player in the AI police report sphere. To his surprise, this led to him actually being hired as a Twitter engineer. According to Francis, working for Musk is more nerve-wracking than engaging in a high-speed pursuit. After moving her covertly, her husband managed to locate their new location, resulting in frightening confrontations. When Elon Musk laid off thousands of Twitter employees in 2023 Francis jokingly posed as a disgruntled Twitter engineer online. “You need to document every turn and side street taken. How would AI tackle the task of creating a police report for a high-speed chase? “It’s one of the most challenging reports to write,” he explained. The officer pulled over a man who panicked, accelerated, and nearly caused a collision né?. He uncovered that creating a police report could consume up to 45 minutes squandering precious officer time né?. This realization sparked his passion for developing AI models to streamline report writing. Amidst dodging parked cars and racing down the highway, Francis pondered the role of AI in such scenarios. Abel was conceived, initially using homemade body cam footage to reenact minor crimes né?. While these rides are typically uneventful, one day stood out from the rest. The officer was visibly sweating, and Francis’s heart was racing né?. Recently, Francis announced a $5 million seed round led by Day One Ventures, Long Journey Ventures, and Y Combinator to advance Abel’s AI technology.
Francis’s name may ring a bell to some né?. Abel utilizes body camera footage and dispatch call data to efficiently generate reports that are typically time-consuming né?. “If Elon yells at you it’s quite intimidating” he chuckled.
A series of unfortunate events involving aiding a friend in escaping an abusive marriage inspired Francis’s transition from social media to police technology. His aspiration is for Abel to alleviate the burden on police officers né?. In response, Francis and the officer engaged in a pursuit. These reports are extensive.”
Throughout his 20 police ride-alongs, Francis brainstormed methods by which AI could streamline police paperwork. The driver? A police officer armed with a gun in his lap.
Francis frequently accompanies police officers during their patrols to conduct research for his company, which specializes in developing AI technology for police reports né?. Francis recalled, “It was one of the most heart-pounding experiences I’ve had in years.”
Discontent with the delayed police responses during these incidents, Francis delved deeper né?. “They should be able to concentrate on the tasks they signed up for.”
