Language support

Auto-Transcribe creates transcripts in the language selected during transcription, and also lets you generate on-demand translations into another supported language for easier evidence review.

Transcript language

Users can select a language when requesting an Auto-Transcript, and change the language of an existing Auto-Transcript.

Administrators can control which languages are available for the organization from the Auto-Transcribe Settings page in Axon Evidence Admin.

Auto-Transcripts and translations of Auto-Transcripts are fully supported for the following languages:

• Dutch (Netherlands)
• English (United States)
• French (Canada)
• French (France)
• German (Germany)
• Italian (Italy)
• Portuguese (Brazil)
• Spanish (Spain, United States)
• Multilingual English-Spanish
  • If your organization serves a multilingual population, it is highly recommended that you set your default language to Multilingual English-Spanish to ensure that your Auto-Transcripts are generated as expected.

Over 50 additional languages are available through a 'Public Beta' program. To request that a beta language be activated for your agency, contact your CSM or Axon Sales Representative.

Before making any AI generally available at Axon, we want to deeply understand how it performs across ethical dimensions such as gender, race, age, and accent. This work is in progress but can take several months to complete. Therefore, we want to set your expectation that performance and accuracy may not be acceptable with certain demographics — hence the "Beta" label. Once the ethical assessment is complete, we'll make a determination on removing the Public Beta label and graduating to General Availability.

Select language

Automatically transcribed files (e.g., body camera and Axon Capture recordings when on the Unlimited plan), appear in the default language defined by the organization's administrator.

For files not automatically transcribed, you can select which language the transcript should be transcribed into.

Change language

You can re-transcribe a file into another language. When re-transcribing a file, you will see a dialog warning you that any edits you made to the original transcript will be lost. This does not charge the user any additional minutes.

To re-transcribe a file:

1. Open Transcription Assistant and select Change Language.
2. Choose the new language from the Transcript Language menu.
3. Select Start.
   

Translate transcript

Once a transcript has been created for an audio or video evidence file, you can generate a translation.

Auto-Transcripts and translations of Auto-Transcripts are fully supported for the following languages:

• Dutch (Netherlands)
• English (United States)
• French (Canada)
• French (France)
• German (Germany)
• Italian (Italy)
• Portuguese (Brazil)
• Spanish (Spain, United States)
• Multilingual English-Spanish
  • If your organization serves a multilingual population, it is highly recommended that you set your default language to Multilingual English-Spanish to ensure that your Auto-Transcripts are generated as expected.

Over 50 additional languages are available through a 'Public Beta' program. To request that a beta language be activated for your agency, contact your CSM or Axon Sales Representative.

Once created, you can interact with a translation just as you would the transcript (select text to jump to a moment, search, use common keywords, etc.).

Translations can be downloaded once generated. You can also remove a translation and "revert" to the original transcript.

When working with translations, keep the following in mind:

• Translations are only available to Auto-Transcribe Unlimited customers.
• Additional languages will become available once they have undergone testing and evaluation to ensure accuracy and bias prevention.
• Transcripts containing both Spanish and English or "Spanglish" can be translated as long as the Multilingual English-Spanish language model is used to generate the original transcript.
• Translations are AI-generated and unverified, so they may contain errors.
• Translations are intended for on-demand quick evidence review. They can't be edited and verified like regular transcripts.
• Translations are single-session; if you leave the evidence details page after generating a translation and return to it later, the translation will no longer appear and must be regenerated.
• After generating a translation, you can download it as a DOCX file.
• Translations can't be created for documents, images, or video frames.

Translations for multilingual transcripts

High quality translations rely on transcripts having been created using the correct transcription language model.

For example, say an organization has configured English (United States) as the default transcription language model for all evidence items. When a piece of evidence containing both English and Spanish audio is uploaded, all audio is transcribed using the English (United States) language model. As a result, the English portions of the audio are transcribed correctly, but the Spanish portions are nonsensical or blank.

When this transcript is translated it into Spanish, the English portions are translated into Spanish as expected, but because the original Spanish portions were nonsensical/blank, the translation contains nonsensical/blank portions and not the expected Spanish.

There are several ways to prevent this problem:

• In Auto-Transcription Settings, set the organization’s default transcription language model to Multilingual English-Spanish.
• Keep the default transcription language model of English (United States) and manually re-transcribe evidence that contains mixed-language audio using the multilingual language model before using the translation feature.

Generate translation

To generate a translation:

1. Open the evidence details page for an audio or video file.
2. In the Transcript tab beside the media player, select Translate.
3. Select a language in the Translate to field.
4. Select Apply.
5. The translation will appear in the Transcript tab.
   

Because the translation is designed for on-demand quick evidence review, you cannot edit it. As a result, when viewing the translation, you cannot select Edit Transcript to open Transcript Assistant and make edits as you would when viewing the original transcript.

If you leave the evidence details page and later come back to it, the translation will no longer appear, and you must generate a new one.

Download translation

Because translations are not saved and must be regenerated each time you access the evidence, it can be helpful to download and save them. To do this, select Download > Translation.

Both the transcript and the translation are NOT available at the same time for download. If you want to download the transcript after you have generated a translation, you must first remove the translation.

Remove translation

If you want to view the original transcript after translating it, either to access Transcription Assistant or if you want to download the transcript:

1. Select the current language of the translation that is displayed in the Transcript tab.
2. Select Remove Translation.
   

 

Axon's AI-powered features use artificial intelligence to provide insights, recommendations, or analysis based on available data and user inputs. These outputs may include inaccuracies, limitations, or outdated information. These tools are designed to support—not replace—professional judgment, legal interpretation, and human oversight. Users are responsible for carefully reviewing and verifying AI-powered content before acting on it. Axon continually works to enhance AI accuracy, mitigate bias, and uphold ethical standards. Learn more at Axon AI.