Seth Watts

Seth Watts

Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at Texas State University. I study policing, technology, and public health.

Research

Truleo: AI-Driven Body-Worn Camera Review

Agencies: Apache Junction PD, Casa Grande PD, and Arizona DPS

Body-worn cameras are everywhere in policing now, but almost nobody watches the footage. Truleo is an AI tool that automatically analyzes BWC video and gives officers feedback on things like de-escalation, professionalism, and communication — without a supervisor having to sit through hours of video.

We’re running a randomized controlled trial across multiple agencies to figure out whether this kind of automated feedback actually moves the needle on officer behavior, and what it takes to get officers to buy in. That means tracking officer attitudes over time, digging into implementation data, and measuring outcomes before and after the technology goes live.

Team: Michael D. White (ASU), Seth Watts (Texas State), Aili Malm (CSULB)

Selected Publications:

Tempe Opioid Recovery Project

Location: Tempe, Arizona

Police are often the first on scene at opioid overdoses, but “arrest or leave” isn’t much of a strategy. The Tempe Opioid Recovery Project (ORP) was built around a different idea: what if police, social services, and researchers actually worked together?

Partnering with the Tempe Police Department, we’ve studied overdose response from multiple angles — officer attitudes toward people who use drugs, what body-worn camera footage tells us about what actually happens at overdose scenes, whether Narcan-trained officers are using it, and how proximity to services shapes outcomes for people experiencing homelessness. The through-line is figuring out what a more effective, humane police response to the opioid crisis looks like in practice.

Team: Michael D. White (ASU), Dina Perrone (CSULB), Seth Watts (Texas State), Aili Malm (CSULB)

Selected Publications: