Minnesota police use AI to help Spanish speakers avoid scammers are pretending to be federal agents
Amid President Trump's policy changes and actions on immigration, scammers have been taking advantage by reaching out to Spanish-speaking people by pretending to be federal agents and demanding money.
Bloomington Police are now using a cutting-edge approach to warn people: artificial intelligence.
"We have a big Spanish-speaking population in Bloomington," Bloomington police officer Ken Lebaron said. "I find myself regularly talking to people in Spanish."
When Lebaron is working in the community, he uses Spanish. His family is from Mexico.
"They know they can come and talk to us, which is usually a big barrier knowing what's going on politically," Lebaron said.
Now the department is doing that in a completely new way. With artificial intelligence, officer Chris Wegner is helping lead a new mission.
Instead of using a translator, they are using software to make it sound and look like Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges is speaking in Spanish.
The technology is catching on. An immigration agent scam warning video has 3,000 views and counting, which has the leadership excited.
"We wanted to reach those people but we also wanted to do it in a responsible and respectful way," Bloomington Police Deputy Chief Damon Bitney said. "It all goes back to respect, exactly. Everything we do goes back to respect."
If artificial intelligence can bring genuine connection, Lebaron says that's "a big step in being able to communicate more clearly."
The next step is to use artificial intelligence to start delivering the chief's messages in Somali. The deputy chief says this is just the beginning of being able to use AI in law enforcement.
