In the high-stakes world of forensic science, time is the enemy of justice. The University of Central Oklahoma (UCO) Forensic Science Institute (FSI) was looking for an innovative AI solution that could help reduce the time required to analyze complex criminal case documents and construct clear timelines. In early tests, this solution, which can typically take criminal investigators months, has been demonstrated to significantly reduce this time.
This collaboration between Google Public Sector and UCO’s technology and forensic experts establishes a path for a new standard for accelerating the pursuit of justice across the country and provides powerful efficiency gains.
This project, which originated in an AI hackathon sponsored by the university’s CIO Sonya Watkins, centers on Google's NotebookLM, an AI research tool used by the university as a thinking partner for the review of complex criminal cases. Sonya Watkins, CIO, University of Central Oklahoma and I co-led the hackathon with the goal of rapidly identifying and prototyping high-impact solutions for the university, while providing the technical framework, and brought expertise in rapid prototyping to quickly translate complex criminal case requirements into a functional, evidence-backed digital application. During the hackathon, teams generated ideas, which were then stack-ranked using Gemini, based on potential impact and feasibility, quickly identifying the case timeline analysis as a high priority use case.
The enthusiasm is absolutely warranted. We’ve seen a process that was a months-long burden reduced significantly in our trials. The human expert remains the critical validator, but we're now equipping them with an exponential speed advantage.
The UCO team, including FSI Instructors Meagan Raddatz and Amber Fortney, have been meticulously working to ensure that the AI-generated timelines are forensically sound and meet stringent standards required for the federal and state justice systems.
Their ongoing work focuses on developing a repeatable case analysis framework using Google’s NotebookLM intended for potential future national adoption. This framework is engineered to ensure that every AI-generated conclusion is directly cited back to the original source document, a critical requirement for maintaining evidence integrity. By automating document analysis and creating a measurable process, UCO is setting a new national standard for how forensic institutes and law enforcement agencies can operate.
Our goal wasn’t just to solve our internal problem; it was to build a framework that other forensic institutes and law enforcement agencies could adopt seamlessly. By focusing on standardized processes and reliable citation, we believe we are creating a scalable solution that has the potential to significantly accelerate how evidence is processed nationwide, aiding the delivery of justice.
Bring AI-powered research to your campus with Gemini for Education to transform how your teams learn, work, and innovate. By exploring NotebookLM within the Gemini ecosystem, you can equip your researchers with the same tools driving UCO’s success in reducing complex data analysis from months to days, right now.