Terms were not disclosed.
The Texas-based company launched in 2023 and touts its “AI-powered suite” with the message that “the future of policing is paperless.”
Blueline, whose co-founder comes from a law enforcement family, uses AI for such tasks as transcribing interviews and body-worn camera interactions, search warrant routing and police report narratives, according to the statement announcing the deal.
Even though pretty much every government technology is chasing the presumed treasure of AI, Blueline has done so differently, according to Weston Helms, CentralSquare’s chief strategy officer.
The newly acquired company constructed its public safety platform first and then “built AI on top of it,” Helms told Government Technology. In what he called the “AI arms race,” companies often start with an AI-first mentality when it comes to fresh products and use cases.
CentralSquare already uses AI for 911 call handling and plans to use the Blueline technology across a wide range of offerings, “natively embedding it into products,” Helms said.
Blueline employees are now part of the CentralSquare team.
“This marks the first step of our vision for a unified AI platform that will optimize all CentralSquare product offerings in the future,” said Manolis Kotzabasakis, chief executive officer at CentralSquare, in the statement. “By bringing Blueline into the CentralSquare ecosystem, we are equipping our customers with the power to simplify routine reporting and administrative tasks without sacrificing security or data integrity.”
CentralSquare says it has more than 8,000 customers.
This new deal is just one signal of how AI might develop in public safety in the coming year. As that happens, a backlash is building. Right before the holidays, for instance, the ACLU released a report critical of using artificial intelligence to write police reports — a move that could prove influential for tech competition in that space.
