Covington approved a contract with Axon Enterprises for police tech Tuesday night.
The contract was approved with caveats against using automatic license plate readers and added restrictions on how the police department could use AI technology, among other amendments to the initial contract.
An initial version, introduced in August, proved unpopular with many city residents. That version included four combination mobile license plate readers and dash cam devices for squad cars, a new police drone, tasers, new AI-integrated tech and other equipment for the department. The city had set aside money for this tech as part of its budgeting process earlier this year.
The contract was originally set to be voted on at the end of last month, but members of the public came out to the meeting where the contract appeared on the board’s consent agenda to speak against it. The board eventually moved to hold an extended public comments section at this week’s meeting to allow people to speak at length about the technology.
In a meeting that lasted over four hours last night, people spoke. The commission chambers were packed, and the city had to set up a viewing monitor in the City Hall lobby for overflow attendees to follow what was going on.
“A 10-year, $6 million commitment to a single vendor bundling hardware, artificial intelligence, cloud data storage and an autonomous drone program deserves more than a rubber stamp,” said former City Commissioner and current Covington Human Rights Commissioner Pam Mullins.
Most speakers at the meeting opposed the technology or had reservations about it. Many called for deeper auditing procedures or external oversight. Others criticized Axon’s business connections, namely with Carbyne, an Israeli company Axon acquired earlier this year that had ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Another concern involved the AI drafting assistance tech and how long that data would be stored, which eventually led to the change mentioned above.
Still others had concerns about warrantless searches and general surveillance and said they felt the police department had lost trust with the community.
“I don’t think that there’s a real level of trust there, and then to be given more tools to further survey us, I think that that sits wrong with a lot of folks,” said Mainstrasse resident Bill Stone.
A handful of speakers supported the technology, notably Adam Uhl and Brian Powers, a Covington detective and former detective, respectively. They had employed license plate readers to solve the murder of a man named Virgil Stewart in 2022. They were later honored for their investigation by the Northern Kentucky Police Chiefs Association.
The president of the Covington Fraternal Order of the Police, Mark Richardson, also spoke out in favor of the contract.
“Technology, when it is properly governed, properly trained, and properly used [can] save lives,” Richardson said. “It can help us find missing people. It can help us communicate with people that don’t speak English. It can help our police officers go home to their families at the end of their shift. That matters.”
Following public comments and numerous motions, voice votes and directions to city staff members by the commissioners Tuesday night, the version that was approved unanimously had the following changes:
- The complete removal of the squad car license plate reader/dash cameras
- The banning of future automatic license readers mounted on poles under city jurisdiction
- Changing the term of the contract from 10 years to a single year with an option to renew it for the subsequent nine years
- A new requirement for the police department to submit a report to the city manager and board of commissioners every 30 days on the use of the technology
- Opting out of automatic software upgrades to prevent the tech from being altered without the city’s control
- Mandating keeping drafts of any police reporting that employs AI assistance so as to discern between AI-drafted reports and human-drafted reports in the public record
- Opting out of any sharing of data with Axon to train AI models
- The creation of an online transparency portal, where members of the public could follow how the new drone was used, where it went and when
