Douglas County commissioners unanimously approved the purchase of an artificial intelligence system to assist the Sheriff’s Office with investigative analysis.

The system is designed to help investigators process large volumes of data more efficiently and turn it into usable investigative leads, officials said. 

“This system dramatically improves how we process large and complex databases, turning them into clear, actionable intelligence that supports faster and more accurate decision making,” Brian Murphy with the sheriff’s office told commissioners. 

The program, called TimePilot, was designed by TranquilityAI and integrates case files into an AI platform capable of producing timelines, analyzing data and reports. Officials said the $100,000 plan is expected to save investigators hours of time and increase closure speeds.

“It’s taking months of work and distilling it down to an hour or two,” Murphy said.

The sheriff’s office used the program for the past year under a trial agreement. During that period, investigators uploaded 30 major cases including homicides, attempted homicides, cold case homicides, several missing persons cases, a high-profile kidnapping and other complex cases.

“Law enforcement investigations often involve thousands of documents, videos, reports, and digital records that would take detectives and analysts weeks or months to review,”  Michele Kennedy, a crime analysis supervisor at the sheriff’s office, said. 

Officials said the system has been used to organize files, generate case summaries, produce victimology reports and analyze data, which has increased efficiency.  

Murphy emphasized that the system is used as an investigative tool and does not replace human judgment. He said the software only analyzes information uploaded by investigators and does not independently identify suspects. 

“This is a tool that gives us leads. This is not something that is rogue and will tell us, this is your suspect. It gives us leads, and then it is the human that has to follow up on those leads,” Murphy said.

Murphy cited an example in which a suspect provided multiple versions of events. Investigators used the system to identify inconsistencies with previous accounts and confront the suspect in real time.

“It would have taken several people having to monitor transcripts, maybe find the information,” Murphy said. “We are multiplying what we are able to do, hundreds, if not thousandsfold, by the use of this program.”