SPD recruit caught cheating using AI glasses
A Seattle police recruit was caught using augmented reality glasses to augment his grades at the police academy, according to a complaint obtained by DivestSPD. Rodgers Byarugaba, one of the 150-plus recruits picked up during SPD’s hiring spree last year, was seen wearing Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses repeatedly in class, including during tests.
Training Lieutenant Larry Longley, who also heads SPD’s POET outreach unit (and is a real piece of work), was dispatched to the academy to investigate with field training Sergeant Ryan Kennard. Longley told Byarugaba that he would be put on an “emergency expulsion” pending an investigation. Kennard attempted to take Byarugaba’s access card, but Byarugaba said he had lost it. It was not reported lost.
When Longley asked him about the glasses, Byarugaba said he used them to take pictures of the academy class while they were running. He told them how the glasses worked and gave them a demonstration. Kennard asked him where the photos went when they were deleted. Byarugaba told him that they went into the trash folder. He showed Kennard the trash folder, which was “curiously empty.”
Although Byarugaba said that he never wore the glasses in class, his classmates and instructors told Longley that this wasn’t true. They said he frequently wore the glasses in class, including on the day of the exam. The total lack of files in the trash folder made Longley and Kennard suspect that he had deleted any evidence that he was cheating. Byarugaba left the academy and resigned shortly after his suspension.
He’s not the first SPD recruit to use technology to cut corners. Another employee was caught using AI to generate work for a relatively simple homework assignment to write a short memo on the “importance of the police uniform. He blamed his wife.