AI startup Blue Voice raises $6M to give police real-time policy guidance

Lawrence started Blue Voice with co-founders Amit Patankar, a Harvard MBA and former Google engineer, and Michael Gropman, a retired Boston police deputy chief. Lawrence said he left law school after an on-campus shooting involving a police officer sparked controversy over police conduct, leading him to see that many policing errors occur when officers lack instant access to department rules.

The platform is used daily by officers at 225 county agencies across 25 states, Lawrence told TechCrunch. He compares it to Harvey, the AI tool used by lawyers, and OpenEvidence, a similar tool for doctors.

Lawrence described the problem Blue Voice aims to solve: officers make decisions from memory or best guess, drawing on thousands of pages of law, policy, municipal ordinances, and state laws. Previously, an officer who could not recall a specific protocol had to page through a 15,000-page manual, wake a supervisor in the middle of the night, or turn to generic tools like Google or ChatGPT, which lack police-specific training. Traditional methods took too long, and consumer AI models gave incorrect answers up to 30 percent of the time, Lawrence said.

Blue Voice is trained on department-specific laws, local ordinances, protocols, and guidelines that general-purpose AI tools cannot access on the public internet. It also provides officers with instant access to detailed school maps on their phones during active-shooter emergencies. The tool answers a question every minute and directs officers to original regulations instead of simply generating answers on its own, leaving the final decision to the officer.

Lawrence said Blue Voice's customer base grew elevenfold over the past year because police departments see concrete results, including reduced crime and fewer operational controversies. He cited a recent case in which a rookie officer used Blue Voice to confirm that a man pressuring a young girl into his vehicle met the legal criteria for child enticement, helping prevent a kidnapping. In another instance, the tool reminded a department chief that an officer could not return to active duty after a shooting without first obtaining a third-party mental health evaluation.

Blue Voice competes with PE-backed Lexipol, which recently added functionality to help detectives solve cold cases. At a time when police use of AI, such as Flock Safety's license plate surveillance systems, draws growing criticism, Lawrence said he hopes Blue Voice proves that properly deployed AI can deliver public safety benefits without sacrificing civil rights.

Lawrence, who previously worked for Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont, said he has no regrets about leaving law school. "This is the best thing I could do with my career and the most impact I could potentially make," he said.