From the Public Safety edition of October 26, 2026
Covington, Ky., signs a 10-year Axon agreement that opts out of AI training on city data and requires retention of AI-drafted police report narratives
City of Covington, Kentucky / Covington Police Department · Policing / AI report writing, cameras and drones procurement · Covington, Kentucky, United States
- Publisher
- City of Covington, KY
- Original publication
- City of Covington news release, Oct. 26, 2026
- Source retrieved
- 2026-10-27
- Event date
- 2026-10-26
What happened
Covington announced a ten-year Master Services and Purchasing Agreement with Axon for its police department, with annual renewals subject to appropriation. It covers Fleet 3 in-car cameras (partly paid with civil asset forfeiture funds, with no ALPR purchased), body-worn cameras, TASERs, virtual reality training and Axon Air drone-as-first-responder equipment, with scheduled replacements. The city says it expressly opted out of Axon’s voluntary data-sharing, customer experience, product enhancement and AI training programs, which bars Axon from using city data, including anonymized or aggregated data, to develop products or train shared AI models, with limited exceptions. For AI-generated police reports, Axon must retain and make available the original AI-generated draft narratives and the final officer-edited reports, and may not auto-delete them before the city’s retention period ends unless the city directs it in writing.
Why it matters
A city writing AI-specific protections into a vendor master agreement: no training on its data and preservation of AI drafts so edits can be compared, addressing a criticism that some report tools discard drafts.
Evidence and measured results
Opened the city news release and read it in full.
Limitations and uncertainty
City release only; the contract value, AI report tool name and pilot results are not stated. No evidence about report accuracy or time savings. The exceptions to the opt-out are described only briefly.
Put this evidence to work
Lighthouse Advisory interpretation, grounded in this source. Enriched 2026-10-27; this does not change the original publication date. Each role follows the same checklist so takeaways compare across sources.
Sales
Role takeaway
- Customer problem
- Cities buying AI report tools want assurance their data will not train vendor models and that AI drafts are preserved for review and disclosure.
- Stakeholders
- City attorney
- Police chief and records unit
- Board of Commissioners
- Prosecutors and defence bar
- Discovery questions
- Does your vendor agreement opt out of AI training, including on aggregated data?
- Are original AI drafts retained with final reports?
- Who can retrieve drafts for discovery?
- Value hypothesis
- Contract terms could reduce data-use and disclosure risk at low cost if negotiated up front.
- Potential engagement
- Contract and records-retention review for one AI report-writing purchase.
- Unsupported claims
- That AI reports save officer time
- That drafts improve accuracy
- Contract value or tool performance
Pre-sales engineering
Role takeaway
- Fit
- Agencies adopting AI report drafting under enterprise vendor agreements.
- Architecture and integration
- Draft and final versions stored in vendor platform and exported to city records systems.
- Prerequisites
- Executed contract terms
- Records retention schedule
- Export interface
- Constraints
- Opt-out exceptions for service delivery and legal compliance
- State records law
- No published performance data
- Security
- Confirm opt-out applies to anonymized and aggregated data; audit vendor data-use attestations.
- Proof of value
- Proposed: retrieve drafts and finals for a sample of reports and compare
- Proposed: request vendor attestation of opt-out status
Delivery
Role takeaway
- Work
- Map retention to AI drafts, set export and discovery procedures, verify opt-out configuration.
- Dependencies
- Vendor configuration
- Records schedule
- Prosecutor discovery practices
- Ownership
- Police records unit with the city law department
- Skills and adoption
- Officers and supervisors trained on how drafts are retained and reviewed.
- Governance checkpoints
- Contract renewal each year
- Records audit
- Discovery request handling
- Acceptance criteria
- Proposed: 100% of AI-assisted reports have retrievable drafts
- Proposed: written vendor confirmation of opt-out
- Risks
- Opt-out exceptions read broadly
- Storage growth
- Drafts deleted early through misconfiguration
Implementation considerations
Lighthouse Advisory interpretation across the operating dimensions a public-sector buyer must settle before this evidence becomes a design. Each note answers the question under its heading for this specific source.
Architecture and integration
What must connect, and where does the AI sit in the workflow?
Draft and final report versions must both be stored in the vendor platform for the full retention period, which affects storage and records system integration.
Governance
Who approves, reviews and stays accountable for outcomes?
Contract terms rather than policy carry the controls: AI-training opt-out and draft retention, enforceable through the agreement.
Security and privacy
What data, permissions and controls need testing?
Opt-out covers anonymized and aggregated data, closing a common exception in vendor terms; limited exceptions remain for service delivery, security and legal compliance.
Accessibility and workforce
Who is affected, and what skills or accommodations follow?
Retained drafts allow supervisors and defence counsel to see what officers changed, which may affect officer training and review.
Procurement
What should contracts, pricing and exit terms secure?
Ten-year term with annual appropriation; equipment refresh cycles of five years for in-car cameras and about two and a half years for other devices; ALPR excluded.
Operating model
Which teams own the service once it runs?
Records retention schedule governs AI draft lifetimes; deletion requires the city’s written direction.
Publication history
- 2026-10-26Public Safety · Issue 487 resources
Stable resource ID: covington-axon-agreement-opts-out-ai-training-retains-ai-report-drafts-20261026