New smartphone app saves time with police interviews
A university lecturer has developed an app to speed up police work that records and transcribes interviews into text then automatically saves it onto a computerised police investigation form.
The “Investigation Report” app was developed by Khon Kaen University (KKU)’s Department of Computer Engineering lecturer Associate Professor Kanda Saikaew in collaboration with a Provincial Police Region 4 team.
The need for the app stemmed from an incident two years ago when Kanda was summoned to provide information in a case relating to the university, said Sam Chai superintendent Pol Colonel Boonrit Chaweerat who was part of the collaboration.
Kanda noticed that police investigators’ would interview people then type out testimony which was inconvenient and slow. She came up with the program that could record testimony and immediately convert it into text to save time.
Investigators also have the option to take photos and attach them to the form.
The app can be used in smartphone Android version 7 and above, tablets, computer notebooks and desktops.
Boonrit’s Sam Chai precinct has been using this program on a pilot basis.
“The fact that it could be used with smartphones helps police in collecting initial testimony when going to scenes far out. It also saves people time and travel expenses [as they didn’t need to go to the police station],” he added.
The KKU and the Provincial Police Region 4 are in the process of applying for a joint patent for the app.