As some patrol officers in the Twin Cities are starting to use artificial intelligence for composing their reports, the St. Paul Police Department isn’t yet taking the leap to the cutting-edge Axon Draft One.

The department recently implemented its first policy on the use of AI. St. Paul police major crime investigators have already been using AI technology to transcribe interviews with victims, witnesses and suspects.

The policy came about because “as a department, we realized that technology is rapidly advancing, and we need to go with the times,” said St. Paul Police Cmdr. Michele Giampolo, who’s in charge of the technology unit. “We needed to have a policy in place to safeguard … private data.”

Erin Hayes, a St. Paul Police Civilian Internal Affairs Review Commission member, said the community and commission should have had the opportunity to weigh in before the department implemented its AI policy.

“I don’t want to say that AI shouldn’t be used in criminal justice work, because there could be some benefit, but we have to have really good guardrails laid down, and we have to know where the data is going and who is using our data,” Hayes said.

Police leaders say AI technology like Axon Draft One saves time, allowing officers to more quickly get back to patrolling. It uses audio from officers’ Axon body cameras and drafts a police report, to which officers are then prompted to add details and check for accuracy.

Draft One does not generate information about what the surroundings look like or what is happening in the body camera video, said Eagan Police Lt. Nate Tennessen. Eagan police are using Draft One for non-felony offenses.

“This sticks to the facts within the transcript of the audio only, so it’s objective AI,” he said. “It’s making no assumptions of the video.”

With the key role that police reports have in investigations and prosecutions, some people raise concerns about the implications of law enforcement using Draft One and say there should be opportunities for public input.

“When we’re potentially sending people to prison based on police reports, obviously we want to have an accurate, clear and unbiased portrayal of what happened,” said Alicia Granse, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota.

The Dakota and Hennepin county attorney’s offices, which primarily handle felonies, don’t accept Draft One reports. A Ramsey County Attorney’s Office policy issued in August says law enforcement have to notify them if they’re using AI tools for investigative purposes.

The Eagan City Attorney’s Office, which prosecutes misdemeanors and gross misdemeanors, accepts the Eagan Police Department’s Draft One reports for prosecutions, Tennessen said.

St. Paul police: No short-term plan to use Draft One

Until a couple of years ago, St. Paul major crime investigators who interviewed victims, witnesses or suspects were tasked with typing transcripts of exactly who said what.

The hours-long process entailed investigators listening back to audio from video cameras in interview rooms.

Since the department upgraded the cameras, investigators can now use an automated transcription process. The police department says that’s the only way they’re using AI in reports at this time.

Police Civilian Internal Affairs Review Commission member Dan Featherstone, speaking at the commission’s November meeting, asked if the St. Paul Police Department intends to use Axon Draft One.

“We have no plan, at least in the short term,” replied St. Paul Police Cmdr. John Cajacob, who oversees the internal affairs unit. “I don’t know long term. There’s no current plan.”

If the use of Draft One comes up, PCIARC chairperson Sarah Florman said she “would highly recommend” that it’s “discussed well in advance of implementation with the commission and ideally with the community. There’s a lot of bright red flags with that particular technology that concerns me.”

Cajacob said, based on his conversations with department leadership, “there’s no question” they’d seek community feedback if they expand AI use to Draft One.

The PCIARC, comprised of St. Paul residents, reviews civilian-initiated complaints of police misconduct, and makes disciplinary and policy recommendations to the police chief.

How Twin Cities police are using Draft One

Bloomington and Brooklyn Park police each have 15 officers using Draft One in a pilot program for misdemeanor-level offenses. Woodbury police have seen a demonstration and are considering a limited trial.

“This produces a report very quickly and what we’re experiencing is highly detailed reports,” said Brooklyn Park Police Inspector Matt Rabe.

Officers are required to review and add to the report. As a safeguard, the Eagan department automatically has a function that adds what Lt. Tennessen calls “unicorn and wizard sentences” in Draft One reports.

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“It’ll be an outlandish sentence” that shows up in a report and officers need to find it in their review and delete it before signing off on the report, he said.

Using Draft One has led to officers providing more narration about what they’re seeing when they’re on a scene, so their audio comments are captured on body camera and then reflected in the report, said Tennessen and Rabe.

For example, officers will say, as their body camera is recording, “I’m responding to a report of damage to a vehicle at this address. The caller identified themselves as such and such with this phone number,” Rabe said. “I see a scratch on the driver’s side, front bumper of the vehicle.”

There’s a disclosure in the reports that they were generated with Axon Draft One, Rabe and Tennessen added.

Axon contracts for body cameras, more

The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office issued its own policy about AI use in August. It says their prosecutors are required to know if any law enforcement agency’s case “includes evidence developed or arrests made based on the use of AI.”

They notified law enforcement agencies across the county, said spokesman Dennis Gerhardstein. The county attorney’s office is “aware of only a handful of cases from SPPD that include AI assistance,” he said. “We have not heard back from other … agencies per their intent to use AI in the investigative process.”

St. Paul homicide, robbery and sex crimes investigators are among those using Axon Auto-Transcribe when they conduct interviews in the department’s conference rooms that are equipped with video cameras, said Giampolo, the technology commander. They’re required to listen to the video, and check and fix the transcript for accuracy before including it in their reports, she said.

The St. Paul police contract with Axon for this year is nearly $2 million, which includes body cameras, squad cameras, tasers, Auto-Transcribe, data storage and more. The Eagan police contract is $6 million for 10 years and includes similar elements.

When it comes to facial recognition, St. Paul police say they do not have technology that uses it. The department asked the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office analysis unit, which has facial-recognition technology, for assistance in identifying suspects 23 times this year as of Nov. 5, according to Alyssa Arcand, a St. Paul police spokeswoman.

The requests are to help solve serious crimes and represent a small percent of the 8,000 to 10,000 major crime investigations St. Paul police conduct each year, Arcand said.

St. Paul review commissioners wanted to weigh in

At the St. Paul Police Civilian Internal Affairs Review Commission’s Nov. 5 meeting, Commissioner Hayes said she appreciated receiving the police department’s AI policy, but added, “What I don’t appreciate is that this policy was put into place prior to this meeting. To me, I thought we had been on a really good path of collaborating and looking at policy.”

Cajacob, the internal affairs commander, said he sent the policy to the PCIARC coordinator on Oct. 13. It was implemented Oct. 17.

He said he knows it was “a short period of time,” and added, “Our policies are not set in stone. It’s important that we always have … feedback and we’re able to adapt things … so certainly, it’s an ongoing discussion.”

PCIARC Coordinator Sierra Cumberland said she believed it was the department’s draft policy on AI when she sent information to the commissioners on Oct. 21 and requested feedback by their Nov. 5 meeting. She said she hadn’t been told what date the policy would take effect and didn’t know the department had already implemented it.

How prosecutors are handling AI

The Dakota County and Hennepin County attorney’s offices, usually prosecuting felonies, do not accept law enforcement reports that utilized Draft One.

The Dakota County Attorney’s Office “is examining and considering” whether to accept them, according to County Attorney Kathy Keena.

Law enforcement interviews that were transcribed using AI are accepted, said Morgan Kunz, Hennepin County Attorney’s Office criminal division director.

The difference is, with the body camera audio used in Draft One, “they’re usually out in the field, there’s often lots of things going on. The audio can be of less quality than you would get in an interview room with an interview being conducted,” Kunz said.

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When an officer is making a decision to arrest someone, to search or to use force, for example, “they need to write a report explaining why they made that decision,” Kunz said. “An AI tool, listening to the audio, is essentially going back after the fact and creating a justification for something based on the audio. It’s not an articulation of why the police made that decision in the first place.”

The American Civil Liberties Union said last year that police departments should not allow officers to use AI, like Draft One, for reports.

If AI is being used for reports, ACLU of MN staff attorney Granse said there should be questions about what safeguards are in place to ensure officers are truly reviewing them before signing off on them.

Utah and California have implemented laws requiring police to disclose in a report if it was written using AI. Would the Minnesota ACLU want the Legislature to take that up?

“Certainly, it’s something that we’re interested in,” Granse said.

“Transparency is important, not only just the fact that AI was used, but what is the AI? How is it trained? How is it being coded?” she said.

EUGUNE, Ore. — The visitors’ postgame interview “room” for Autzen Stadium didn’t, in a small way, cushion the fall from the Gophers’ 42-13 loss to eighth-ranked Oregon on Friday. It didn’t even sterilize from it.

Thin white walls of a temporary event tent allowed for the sounds of reveling Ducks fans departing the venue to contrast from the downbeat scene inside. Lights flooded the podium, leaving a squinting P.J. Fleck to ask, “This necessary?”

After what happened under the stadium lights on national TV, there was no escaping how noncompetitive Minnesota was against another program in position to make the College Football Playoff in December.

Noah Whittington #6 of the Oregon Ducks is tackled by Darius Green #12, Mike Gerald #13 and John Nestor #17 of the Minnesota Golden Gophers during the first half at Autzen Stadium on Nov. 14, 2025 in Eugene, Oregon. (Photo by Soobum Im/Getty Images)

When Fleck was at multiple more-comfortable podiums during Big Ten Media Days in Las Vegas in July, the head coach talked about his program’s dream-big goal of punching up into the CFP conversation.

“If we are delusional enough to know we can do that, we can get there,” Fleck said inside an air-conditioned ballroom at Mandalay Bay Resort.

Fleck used last year’s Indiana team as a beacon for what could be done. The Hoosiers have proven that wasn’t an aberration. Going into this week, Indiana was No. 2 behind No. 1 Ohio State in the CFP rankings.

The Gophers were outclassed by Ohio State in a 42-3 loss at Ohio Stadium on Oct. 4 and again Friday against the Ducks. The talent, size, speed and execution gaps jump off the turf.

In that tent Friday, Fleck was asked how the Gophers can close the gap with the elite teams in the Big Ten and nation.

“Got to get better,” Fleck said.

But how?

“In every aspect of our game,” Fleck said. “They are a really good football team. I’m not insulting your intelligence. They are a really good football team. I would love to sit there and say we have the magic pixie dust that was going to make us be way better.

“They executed at an incredibly high level; that is what a playoff-contending team does. Like I told you before, they got every resource known to man, but they also coach really, really hard and they are really good coaches.

“When you combine that really good athlete with the really good coaching, in that environment … that is what you see. … I would love to close the gap.”

The gap between the haves and have-nots in college football has always been wide, but with the addition of name, image and likeness (NIL) in the last few years, Minnesota continues to lag. Oregon has the bottomless pockets of Nike founder Phil Knight; Minnesota has no one close to that level of investment.

While there was a temporary tent for the visitors to use on the east side of Autzen Stadium, Oregon is building a glass-encased practice facility on the west side of the stadium.

Most visitors must feel an inferiority complex when coming to Eugene, and that tent props it up.

“We got a really good football team, too, “ Fleck said. “We are playing a lot of guys at times that really need this experience. I have no problem with the investment piece of that.”

After hitting their head on the ceiling yet again, the Gophers (6-4, 4-3 Big Ten) will finish the season against old West division foes — Northwestern at Wrigley Field next Saturday and the regular season finale against rival Wisconsin for Paul Bunyan’s Axe on Nov. 29.

When Fleck came to Minnesota, fans told him beating Wisconsin game was the benchmark for success at the U. While he changed the level of expectations with preseason with talk of the CFP, the Gophers find themselves back in that familiar spot.

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Kids ‘n Kinship provides friendships and positive role models to children and youth ages 5-16 who are in need of an additional supportive relationship with an adult. Here’s one of the youth waiting for a mentor:

First name: Zeek

Age: 12

Interests: Zeek likes swimming, zombie movies, and video games. He also likes to fish a lot. He is very caring and protective when he gets to spend time with animals.

Personality/Characteristics: Zeek is learning ways to be a better listener. He describes himself as: kind-ish (his words), helpful and caring. He is adopted but protective of and caring towards his biological siblings who live outside his home.

Goals/dreams: He would like a 1:1 male mentor, or a couple mentorship. Adoptive mom notes, “He is really in need of a positive male role model. He was formerly in foster care. He could use positive adults in his life to see there’s a different path for him and healthier way males can be. When he grows up he wants to be a manager at a store or maybe a social worker, helping kids. Animal loving, patient, and big-hearted male is encouraged to apply!

For more information: Zeek is waiting for a mentor through Kids n’ Kinship in Dakota County. To learn more about this youth mentoring program and the 39+ youth waiting for a mentor, sign up for an Information Session, visit www.kidsnkinship.org or email programs@kidsnkinship.org. For more information about mentoring in the Twin Cities outside of Dakota County, contact MENTOR MN at mentor@mentormn.org or fill out a brief form at www.mentoring.org/take-action/become-a-mentor/#search.

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“Stumble,” a new sitcom that premiered last week on NBC, takes Greg Whiteley’s great docuseries “Cheer,” about competitive cheerleading, runs it through “The Bad News Bears” and frosts it in the mockumentary style of “The Office,” et al. You know the drill — characters doubly conscious of the scene they’re in and the camera that’s watching them, cutaway interviews commenting ironically on the story, a camera that catches odd events around the main action and a broken fourth wall that puts the viewer in the room. It can seem an overused device, but it often produces good results, and, based on the two episodes out for review, the results here, rich in slapstick and silliness, are very good. I laughed a lot, anyway.

Jenn Lyon plays cheerleading coach Courteney Potter, and the actor has clearly taken a long look at “Cheer” main character Monica Aldama, adopting her style and three-fifths of her personality, along with a shelf-load of trophies, collected coaching at Sammy Davis Sr. Junior College (a joke about a Dean named Martin is ladled on top) in Wichita Flats, Texas, a made-up place resembling real-world Corsicana, where “Cheer” is set. As our story opens, Courteney is let go over a not particularly scandalous video (in which, at a team celebration, she is seen drinking champagne from a bottle and giving an award for “best booty”) and must tell her squad, “I have been asked to be fired.”

Her husband, Boone (Taran Killam), coaches football at SDSJC; they call each other “coach.” He was headed for the big leagues as a college player, when he suffered a brain injury on the field. (A piece of his helmet is still embedded there.) This allows for some memory jokes (“Sometimes when Courteney gets mad, I play the head injury card; if that doesn’t work, I play the head injury card”) that may count as insensitive. The brain injury community may have thoughts about that, but I don’t know.

Courteney, one national victory away from becoming the winningest coach in history, is not ready to quit. She gets herself hired to lead the team (and teach typing) at the community college in almost-neighboring Headltston, known for its Candy Button factory (and gift shop and museum), which has given the team a name, the Buttons, and a button-headed mascot. The team when she arrives consists solely of Madonna (Arianna Davis from “Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls”) whose extreme enthusiasm is tempered by attacks of narcolepsy. (Davis passes out funny.) Courteney picks up Dimarcus (Jarrett Austin Brown), who refers to himself in the third person, after he walks away from Boone’s football team, where he set a record “in rushing yards as well as unsportsmanlike conduct penalties.”

Peaches (Taylor Dunbar), who got her nickname when she bashed a girl in the head with a can of cling peaches (“and it stuck, the peaches and the name”) is discovered robbing Courteney’s car, from which she impressively parkours away. Sally (Georgie Murphy) is a sweet space case. Krystal (Anissa Borrego), a “cheerlebrity” with a big social media following, comes over from Sammy Davis Sr. Junior College, under the impression, created by Courteney, that the documentary — the one we’re watching — will be about her.

Remembering Stevie (Ryan Pinkston), she finds him working at a car rental place, 16 years older, and wider; he enrolls at Headltston as a 17-year sophomore and thinks of himself, incorrectly, as an assistant coach. Meanwhile, Courteney’s old assistant coach, Tammy Istiny (Kristin Chenoweth, second runner-up for Miss Oklahoma in 1991, giving her usual 200%), will become her rival, icing ambition with sugar.

As in “Cheer,” the aim is to win at the cheerleading nationals in Daytona Beach. It’s hard to see how even in a comedy that might be possible for this crew, a good deal of athleticism notwithstanding, but it’s good that the series has somewhere to go — it gives the documentary within the mockumentary focus, an independent reality, a reason to exist. (Rather than just a crew hanging out forever, with no goal in sight.) Even two episodes in, the show, created by brother and sister Jeff and Liz Astrof, is developing a solid emotional core. (And Busy Philipps will be joining the cast at some point in an unspecified role.) Whatever you make of the Buttons’ chances of survival, “Stumble” is something to root for.

‘Stumble’

Rating: TV-14

How to watch: Fridays on NBC (and streaming the next day on Peacock)

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