The FBI is using artificial intelligence to surface threats and shorten the time from tip to field action weeks to hours or minutes.
The US domestic law-enforcement and intelligence agency is applying the technology against transnational criminal organisations and drug cartels as national violent-crime figures have fallen sharply, including a murder at a 20-year low.
"We've sprinkled in AI and now these tips rise to the top and we can get them out to the field to action," Deputy Director Christopher Raia told CBS News.
Raia said the bureau's National Threat Operations Center is using algorithms to prioritise imminent threats and that the tool sped the response in the arrest and sentencing of Zachary Charles Newell.
He defended the bureau's transparency on civil liberties, saying it has provided at least 50,000 pages of documents for oversight and review.
He also made the case for sharing data from Flock cameras with federal partners and tied the AI push to the interagency Homeland Security Task Force, which contributed to an August case charging 81 alleged members of a violent Puerto Rico gang.
