Overview

Frequently Asked Questions

Below are answers to questions which are frequently posed about the nature of the Abel Writer product and the integrations it enables.

  • How does Abel obtain videos and data needed to create reports?

    Abel Writer polls the client agency’s DEMS and CAD (when such an integration is available), pulling in video, photos, dispatch data, and other artifacts needed to generate reports. Abel systems then generate reports automatically in the cloud and makes these reports available for delivery to officers, either through their RMS or through the Abel web interface.

  • Which videos generate reports in Abel?

    For the majority of our customers, not every video generates a report. Instead, we generate reports when the CAD or DEMS indicates a report number was drawn for a particular event. This greatly reduces the volume of videos for which reports are generated, enabling us to deliver our advanced AI product at a lower cost, while also making the list of reports a patrol officer must navigate much more manageable.

  • Does Abel Writer provide offense codes or provide form inputs for criminal charges?

    Abel Writer can fill out NIBRS codes upon request.

  • Can partners display video for a report?

    Yes, the /v1/reports/:report_id endpoint provides a video_presigned_urls key in the response for streaming the video to the user’s interface. We encourage partners to make use of this, in concert with the inline citations within narratives, to provide officers with the ability to jump to relevant portions of the video. Our experience in the field shows this reduces officer time spent on each report by making the review process much faster.

  • How long do you retain reports and videos?

    The default retention is 7 days, with our test agencies being exempted from this time constraint. We do not market our product as an evidence management system, and we wish to avoid bearing the cost of storing reports and videos. As most agencies expect officers to write their reports within 24 hours of an event’s occurance, there’s no need for Abel to store data beyond this time.